Chasing Pixies
by anditsgonnabetotallyawesome
Summary: The life of Donevin Ambrose, a tribute, and a romantic. Yeah...Review please! Rated M for dark themes
1. Prologue

**WARNING! THIS STORY HAS SOME SERIOUSLY DARK PARTS! DO ****NOT ****READ IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE IT!**

Now that that's out of the way, this story is based on the number one Hunger Games forum and roleplay, on a character named Donevin…

An explosion rocks the room.

The gun in a small boy's hand flies off with a huge noise. His mother screams, and his father runs to her side. The boy sets the huge metal gun down, confused and scared. He walks over to his mother, who has fallen over and prods her. His dad's face is streaming with tears, as he holds her thin hand.

"You!" the father screams at the boy's face, spittle flying everywhere. "You killed her!"

The boy runs to his mother's side, shaking her, terrified out of his 5-yr-old mind. "Mom? Mom?" There's no answer.

"MOM!" She doesn't move. Blood blossoms on her white work blouse, and the boy touches the redness, scared. The dad has gone into a state of horror and shock and is frozen still. "Mom."

"Dead." The father speaks in short, broken tones.

"Mom! Why, Mom?" The boy starts to cry and shake, collapsing over her body.

Again, there is no answer. The boy weeps over top of her body, his small body wracked with tears. He murmurs "mom" over and over for hours until someone knocks on the door and screams piercingly, breaking them from their reverie.

"Paul Ambrose! What the hell?" The father's brother comes in, seeing the three figures on the ground, the gun and blood seeping onto the floor. The father looks slowly at the newest addition, eyes lost somewhere else, in a distant world.

"Paul?" He steps forward to the father, Paul, and gives his shoulder a shake, "C'mon, man, wake up." Paul's eyes slowly focus on the man in front of him.

"J-John?"

"Yeah, Paul. It's me. What the hell happened here?" He surveys the room again. "What happened to Diana?"

"Diana," He looks down at her body again, almost as though he doesn't understand. "Dead." He swallows, hard.

John, the brother, steps forward and puts his arms around Paul. "What happened?" Paul's eyes turn dark.

"Donevin. He murdered her." At the sound of his name, Donevin looks up and shakes his head no.

"Donevin. Come here." John gestures to the little boy, who timidly walks up to his uncle. "What Happened?"

"Unca John, the big metal thing Daddy gave me made a big noise and then Mommy all red."

John's eyes grow huge as he hears the boy's account, fear stabbing at his heart. "Paul. Did. You. Give. Him. The. Gun?" Paul nods slowly, seemingly unable to speak. John stares at him for a second before turning, and running out the door in fear. Paul starts to go after him, but cannot keep up with John's weaves and turns. Eventually he returns to the house, depressed and worried. He opens the door to find Donevin sitting on the floor holding his wife's hand. His voice, cracked and broken cries out, "Diana…"

Donevin stares at him for a moment, unsure of what to do. Suddenly, Paul grabs the little boy by his collar, bringing him up to eye level, a dark sneer in his face. The boy struggles, trying to get away, choking a little. "D-Daddy, you're hurting me!"

Paul spits at him again, "You killed her. I'LL KILL YOU!" He throws the small boy against the wall where he crumples in terrified tears.

"Daddy stop, please stop!" The man whales on him, throwing punch after punch after kick, until little Donevin is unconscious and bloody on the floor. He stares at the boy's limp body for a moment, and sense kicks him in the head.

"Ah." He leans down, sighing in relief at the feeble pulse he feels, and brings the boy up to his bed, laying him gently down before going to the kitchen and drowning himself in a case of beer.

A/N: I know this chapter is really, really dark, but they will get better, I promise! And I swear I'm not depressed!

Anyone who reviews will get virtual chocolate!

-MS


	2. A Certain Change of Events

Donevin wakes up, and stands, his bones and muscles still sore. He looks out the window at the darkness still present and sighs in relief. The earlier he wakes up, the less likely he is to cross paths with his father. Today's his birthday, not that anyone alive really cares. His mom would have made a big deal out of it, but she's gone.

Donevin is six years old now. It's been about a year since the accident, and things have gotten worse. John never returned, his heart broken for his sister-in-law. Donevin learned very quickly to avoid his father, because he was angry and violent. Paul turned to alcohol and started beating Donevin when he was in one of his fits, which happened to be often.

A normal day for Donevin is to wake up before the sun and get out of the house, past Paul sleeping on the couch. He walks two miles to the rickety school and stays there all day, through lunch. Usually, on the way in, he steals an apple from the neighbor and eats it. If he doesn't, than he starves the rest of the day through till he comes home.

His clothes are small on him, and always dirty, and he's always sporting a bruise or cut, sometimes worse. The first few days of school, he was asked many times what happened, but he was sullen and ignored them. And so the people avoided him. Kids stayed away because of how scary he looked, and he wasn't exactly jumping to make friends. Adults avoided him because they knew what was happening to him.

So every day, after school ended at three, he would go to a park and climb trees and run for hours until it started getting dark out, and then slowly trudge home, praying to any god that his father would be asleep by now. If he was asleep, Donevin could sneak by, and snag a little dinner from the kitchen. If he wasn't, well, then Donevin got a beating. Paul could find a reason for anything, breathing too loud got a strong slap, walking too slowly meant a broken toe, walking too quickly got a stomach jab, anything, really.

Today was a fairly average day for Donevin. He'd woken up early, snagged an apple and ate it on the way to school. He's a very good student, attentive and smart and though they avoid him, his teachers always love the quiet, polite little boy. But anyways, he'd grabbed the apple, went to school, wasted time in the park and made his way home as usual.

That is when things change. Donevin slowly pushes open the door, glancing at the couch hopefully. Nothing. His breath catches and he tiptoes to the stairs and starts walking up, wincing at every miniscule creak.

"Donevin, come here." His father's voice is crisp and clear, it doesn't sound like the normal drunk slur. I slowly turn, my heart pounding, my foot still on the first stair. He walks reluctantly into the kitchen, leaving a few feet of room between them.

"Y-Yes, F-Father?" His heart is pounding in his ears, though he hasn't heard his dad speak a civil word in a year.

"Tomorrow starts your training."

"Training? Wh-What do you mean, Father?"

"I am going to train you for the games. You are going to win them." Paul leans into the little boy's face, his yellow teeth inches from his face.

"The games, sir? But I'm only six."

"Six years to work. Get up as early as you usually do tomorrow, and be ready to work."

"S-Sir? What about school?"

Paul snorts. "Oh, Donevin, you don't need any of that sh*t." His towering figure looms above Donevin, who nods slowly, deeply saddened. School was his only escape from the home life.

"Now go to bed." When Donevin doesn't move quickly enough, he gets a light tap on the butt and he practically flies up the stairs and dives into bed, cowering under the covers. Donevin contemplates the change of events in confusion.

Donevin crawls into bed, shaking. He falls asleep slowly, scared out of his wits that his father will come back, and starving because he didn't get any dinner.

Eventually, he wakes up and stretches, the muscles in his body less sore than they've been in a while. He walks down the stairs slowly, after pulling on a shirt and pants, his eyes searching for his father. Sitting at the kitchen table is Paul, who, upon seeing Donevin, nods curtly. "Donevin."

Donevin casts his eyes downward as he had been taught, "Yes father?" He's afraid of what his father will say.

"We will start now." Donevin sighs in relief, and nods slowly. 

"Good boy." Paul pats Donevin's head like he's a little dog. "Now, eat that." He shoves a bowl of three raw eggs under Donevin's nose, who crinkles his nose in disgust.

The poor little boy can't help himself saying, "But Father, it's raw!" though he quickly covers his mouth in fear. Paul pushes his nose down into the eggs for a few seconds before letting him back up, Donevin's nose dripping with yellow yolk.

"I said, eat that." His voice is sharp edged and rough. Donevin obeys, slowly bringing the egg to his mouth and swallowing it, shuddering as it goes down. "Faster, boy!" comes the sharp reprimand, and Donevin quickly speeds up, eating the eggs until the bowl is empty. He sits back, holding his stomach, tears in his eyes.

"Stand up." Donevin jumps to his feet. "Turn around, slowly." He looks Donevin up and down like a pig at market. "We have a lot of work to do."

A/N: So I need ya'll to tell me what you think I should do for the next few chapters. See, his dad is going to train him for years, and I can either do a shortish chapter for each year, or one long chapter, what do you think?

-MS


	3. Through the Years

_Later that night_

Donevin rolls out of bed and throws on his shoes and coat, sliding down the tree by his window. He runs as fast as his little legs can carry him and knocks on the door of the school teacher, who lets him in. He tells her about what his dad said, and she gives him some school books and wishes him luck. He runs back home, the precious cargo under his arm.

He pores over those books for the next few years, teaching himself history, math, English, Latin, everything he'd need.

The years slowly go by, and each birthday adds a new art of training to his belt.

AGE SIX

At age six, Donevin is trained heavily in the art of hand-to-hand combat, learning the crazy skills needed to disarm and knock out an opponent in seconds. By his seventh birthday, he can hold down an adversary three times his size, and get them to the ground in five seconds flat. The tough regime begins before the sun, with a protein filled breakfast, and weightlifting until his father wakes up. Then it's technique and history of hand-to-hand training until lunch. Donevin is stuffed with a balanced lunch, and then practices with various trainers until dinner. For dinner he eats a simple meal with a piece of fruit and a hunk of meat, and then goes to bed. At night, he sneaks a candle upstairs and studies stolen schoolbooks until he falls asleep

AGE SEVEN

When he turns seven, Donevin's rigorous schedule has knife throwing added in. Now, after the same breakfast as before, he throws knives until eight, and then he does the weights, now 50 pounds. At nine thirty, he studies the history of knives, and knife-making until a tiny lunch at noon. Then, it's four straight hours of knife practice followed by four hours of hand-to-hand. There's dinner and bed. Well, "bed". Every night, Donevin reads for hours, sleeping only about three hours total.

AGE EIGHT

At eight, there's now swordplay and fencing. He wakes up, throws down a breakfast and reviews hand-to-hand and knife throwing until ten, when he gets a regular history lesson. There is no lunch break, and he goes right into a technique class until 3. At three, he fences with trainers until nine at night. There's a quick breakfast, and then he's off to bed.

AGE NINE

Finally, Donevin gets to try out and apply to the Peacekeeping Cor….

"You ready?" Paul leans down into his son's face. "Because this is the biggest moment of your life, Donevin. Screw it up and you will be sorry." Donevin nods curtly as he has been taught.

"Yes, sir." He swallows and walks into the looming Justice building with a hundred other kids, mostly older. He walks into the audition room, filled with weapons and mats.

"You have a presentation? Let's see it." A judge in full peacekeeper uniform talks across the room to Donevin, who immediately begins by doing a jump flip over to a rack of knives.

He grabs one, conspicuously sliding it into his boot, so they can't see. He throws them into a line of dummies, 'killing' each with one hit. He slides over to the hand-to-hand station and destroys people five times his size. The judges are now watching him more intently as he throws a few more knives perfectly, and climbs the wall, flipping off the top and landing on his feet. He takes a small bow and walks to their table, sitting on the floor in front of them.

"Nicely done."

Donevin nods, "Thank you, sir."

"We have some questions for you, Donevin."

"Yes, sir."

"First of all, will you be able to donate your life completely to the capitol."

"Of course, sir."

"Kill even your own family if the president commands it?"

Donevin smiles slightly to himself, he'd love to kill his papa. And his mother is already gone. "Easily, sir." The judges look at him quizzically for a moment, but do not comment. They've seen that before, though it isn't common.

"If faced with a choice between life and death, and living would mean betraying the capitol, and dying would be dying for the capitol, what would you choose?"

"Dying for the country I love." The judges scribble something down and look back up.

"If, per se, the president asked you to come into his office, and he instructed you to bring him the bodies of thirty dead children, what would you do?"

"Bring him the bodies, sir."

"Without hesitation?"

"Without hesitating to follow orders."

"Very well. You may go." Donevin walks out of the room, feeling proud. His father greets him, gauging his face, but does not congratulate him. He simply leads Donevin back home.

Two weeks later, Donevin gets a letter inviting him to join the Peacekeeper's Acadamy for the Gifted Children. He is admitted with nothing but the clothes on his back.

The moment he steps in the door, he is yanked away. They strip him; give him a Private's uniform and buzz cut his hair. Then, he rejoins the other 9 year old boys in a small and uncomfortable bunk. There's a lot of boys cramped in there, but there's really no choice.

He's standoffish and most people stay away from him, but it doesn't matter. He doesn't care.

AGE TEN

Since he's been at the Academy, he's stopped sleeping at nights. Memories of his mother have started haunting his dreams, and he stops letting them get to him by avoiding sleep. Nowadays, his day starts at 5:30, with a hearty breakfast. There's strength training and weaponry in the morning, a big lunch and peacekeeper training in the afternoon. All of his teachers love him, little Donnie is polite, smart and hardworking.

AGE ELEVEN 

Donevin has graduated from Private to a Corporal. He is the youngest Corporal in all of history at the Academy, but it is obvious how good he is and how well he does. Many people disapproved of it, and hated working under Donevin, but they have no choice, and really is the best of the best. His small platoon trains hard, and when it comes to mock battles, they win every single time.

AGE TWELVE, THIRTEEN, AND FOURTEEN

Life hasn't changed much for Donevin. Legally, he's too young to go any higher in the military, Corporal is already a stretch. Being a peacekeeper-in-training, he doesn't get entered for the games, so he's very lucky. His platoon works very well together, and they beat everything that gets thrown at them. They even get to go into the field, and win with no losses.

AGE FIFTEEN

Donevin has some trouble…

"DON'T TOUCH HER!" Donevin's voice rings out across the silent lunchroom. All eyes are on him.

"She's my girlfriend, I can do whatever the hell I want with her!" an angry boy is clutching a shaking girl to him. He leans over and kisses her, hard, while the girl struggles to get out of his reach. Donevin lunges forward, shoving the boy off her.

" I said, 'DON'T TOUCH HER!'" He kicks the boy on the ground, hard, over and over until he turns unconscious. Donevin stomps on his fingers, hearing the sickening crack. The boy is bloody and not breathing. Donevin turns on his heel to find the girl terrified and shaking. "Go." is all he says to her, and she tears away, bursting into tears.

A doctor looks at the boy grimly, and his body is sent home to his family in a cardboard box.

Donevin gets called to the Sargent Major's office. "Donevin. I am so very disappointed in you." He doesn't speak. "You have done so well. But now, my top Corporal is on probation, on the verge of being kicked out. If you weren't such a strong officer, you'd be gone by now."

Donevin nods slightly. He is terrified of being sent back home, terrified of his father. "Be glad you're not. Now go." Donevin salutes and walks out of the room, directly into another Corporal.

"You." the other Corporal spits in his face. Donevin tries to ignore him, because he knows that anything could get him the boot, and this guy wants to take down him for some reason.

He shoves Donevin into a wall. "I spoke to you! You speak back!" Donevin still doesn't reply, just gets up and starts to walk away. The guy then slumps to the ground, yelling in false pain. "MY EYE! Oh, Donevin punched me!" Donevin turns around to see the Sargent Major come out to see the boy on the ground.

"DONEVIN! You are outta here! Get in my office, stat!" Donevin hurries to his office, fighting back tears. He glances at the boy on the ground, who smirks at Donevin.

The Sargent Major sends Donevin home, where his father beats him so hard he doesn't wake up for three days.

His name has been entered into the reapings 8 times, twice for each year he wasn't there.

AGE SIXTEEN AND SEVENTEEN

Donevin is beaten senseless each year he refuses to volunteer. He is in bed for days and days after each one, but refuses to regret it. He still trains, but not as vigorously. He still doesn't sleep, he sits and reads by candlelight, or meditates.

AGE EIGHTEEN

Donevin follows his dad to the tesserae office in confusion. Why would they need a tesserae? And why didn't he ask Donevin?

"I'd like to get some tesserae for my son. He's very sick see, and we need a food."

"Name?"

"Donevin Ambrose."

"How many?"

"How many can I get?"

"100 tesserae."

"That's how many."

"Thank you sir, the food will be delivered later on in the year."

"Thanks." Donevin gasps in surprise. His dad was taking tesserae out on him…to get him to go to the games! That's awful!

But Donevin can't or won't approach his father about it, and Reaping day is suddenly upon them…

A/N

I have a question, and a score to settle with ma English teacher. Does anyone here find it confusing or annoying that I write in present tense instead of past? Would it make a difference if I did it in past?

For those of ya'll who aren't already a part of my RP, you're welcome to join, the link is on my profile!

Also, others on there are writing companion stories, so here ya go, you'll be meeting many of these people later on in the story!

Arella (Claire-DaThug) .net/s/7808740/1/How_Far_Can_A_Pixie_Fly Yes. I know this one has a similar title to mine. You will know why in a few more chapters, when Donevin grows up a lil' bit.

Zoey (Zoey-DeThug) .net/s/7809997/1/Cracked_Whips_and_Broken_Smiles

Spring (Kgirl235) .net/s/7808492/1/The_Summer_is_Upon_Us

Xavier (VictoireDallsanta) .net/s/7805863/1/The_One_That_Almost_Got_Away

Flora (Fleur Isabelle Delacour) .net/s/7815407/1/Blossoms_Eventually_Die

-MS


	4. Arella

AGE EIGHTEEN

~DONEVIN'S POV~

I wake up, and roll out of bed in one quick movement. I pull on my shirt and pants, the nicer ones, since it's Reaping Day. I have three sets of clothes, my normal clothes, my nice ones, and the loose ones for working out. Dad never buys me anything except food and weapons. And I don't have the money, or time to get a job to buy anything more than the necessary.

I slowly walk downstairs, reluctant to see my father, because I know what is going to happen. It happens the same every single year, ever since I got kicked out of the P.A.G. (A/N-Peacekeeper's Academy for the Gifted).

He's sitting there in that chair he always sits in, the one with the messed up leg. I don't sit down. I lean against the counter, waiting for the inevitable speech. But he doesn't start talking, just slowly eating his eggs. I've grown to despise eggs. They disgust me in every way possible.

Finally, he speaks. "Donevin. This is your last chance. You **will** be reaped, or volunteer, and you will return, or you are not my son. My son would fight, and win. My son would not be afraid. Show me my son, or that box that comes home will be tossed in the trash." He stands up, and throws the lasts of his eggs into the trash as if to make a point. He turns on his heel and walks out the door.

*later that day*

I walk into the square, sign in quickly and stand with the others of my age and gender. These faces are familiar now, though no one waves hello. All of them are stone-faced, staring at the podium as Reyana Trinket steps forward. She gives a little welcome speech, as does the mayor, but I tune them out. I don't care. I just want to get this over with.

She calls the girl, "Aria Shaster" and Aria takes to the stage, beaming. I've never really gotten to know her, though I've seen her face before.

She rummages in the next glass ball, and reads the male's name. "Gregory Shepard!" A younger boy steps forward to climb the stairs to the stage, and I step forward. My face is set, my mind angry.

"I volunteer as tribute." Reyana waves me onto the stage, and I turn to face the crowd. I don't see my father. I don't care. I grit my teeth and tell her my name, and she parades it for the cameras before Aria and I are led off to the Justice Building. I give her a glance as I walk by.She seems strong enough. Maybe she will be a good ally.

I am led to a small room with plush covered everything. I run to the door and lock it, scribbling a note for my father.

_** you._

I fold it and write "Paul" on the cover, and tape it to the door. I walk to the train, though it won't leave till Aria gets her fat butt on here.

I walk through, and am stopped by a girl standing in the way. I try to avoid her but she turns in time to walk into me.

"Watch yourself!" I yell at her, man what a moron.

"Excuse me? _You _walked into me."

"You better watch that mouth of yours. You wouldn't want me hunting you in the arena. Even though I do plan on killing you if you make me mad I'll just do it slowly." I already hate this girl. Joy, five minutes and already and enemy!

Another kid steps out of the compartment and has the audacity to shove me, "Hey, man, don't talk to her like that."

The girl, how cocky, "I'm not too worried about you hunting me"

"I would be!" I step forward, trying to look menacing. The boy steps between us, trying to break up the fight, as yet another two people join in. Aria, my partner steps forward, hey, there's somebody on my side! But the other, jeez, she looks like she could hurt something. Maybe.

"Can't we just play nicely here?" Great, a peacemaker. I learn that the boy's name is Claude.

Aria gets in the first girl's face, "Oh look our little love-girl has a backbone! Good for you!" So these are the notorious lovers. The star-crossed couple from district 9. What losers. "Well I guess we'll have to wait until training to see how tough you really are."

I shove Claude back, after he pushes me again. I yell at them, "I plan to kill you all. So I'd be nicer." Then I spin on my heel and start to leave. As I'm turning to go, someone else joins. I look over my shoulder to see who it is, and my mouth hits the floor.

It's like seeing a sunset for the first time in your life.

It's like watching a bird fly after days of rain.

It's like holding a newborn baby in your arms and listening to their tiny breaths.

It's like looking through new eyes.

It's the most wonderful feeling in all the world. And it hits me when I look at that girl standing a few feet away from me.

I blink a few times, my feelings startling me. I shake my head a little, and try to refocus. The two other girls are ranting about training scores at me, but I can't focus on that. Though I respond with my usual curtness, I can't stop my mind from staying fixated on this shining ball of light right over there.

The only thing that catches my attention is when she starts to go. My heart literally breaks in two as she leaves, I want to follow her so bad. One of the girls waves goodbye to her, "See ya later, Arella." My mind is snapping in two, so I make a quick escape, walking out of the door into the hall, into an abandoned closet in my rush.

ARELLA ARELLA ARELLA ARELLA ARELLA ARELLA ARELLA ARELLA ARELLA ARELLA ARELLA ARELLA

That's all that's going through my mind, all I can think, all I can want. I want to speak to her, to savor her beautiful voice, to just be near her.

A/N- I hope you liked it! Claire, did I do her justice? ^^

Please review peoples! Reviews are my fuel!

-MS


	5. Corrie  I hate you

I slowly walk to my compartment, and sit on the small bed. She's the one, I know it. But she's already scared of me, because I'm a career and all that. I put my head in my hands. I've finally found someone I actually love, and it's so screwed up that there's no way she could love me back.

I get up quickly and start wandering around the train. Walking by her compartment, I can hear two voices through the tinted glass. I can't help but pause to listen to the beautiful bells that toll when she speaks.

"He creeps me out." I close my eyes, praying against all prayers that she's not talking about me.

"Don't let him get to you." Another voice speaks, rough and dark in comparison.

"I know I can't, but Spring, I'm scared. He scares me so much." I feel slightly broken inside as I hear the terror in her voice. I need to fix that! I need to find a way to change that fear.

"You're fine. The alliance will protect you, Arella." Though the second voice, Spring, is coarse, her name itself makes the world spin.

"I hope there are trees in the arena so I can get away from him." I can't listen anymore. I walk away from this, my heart burning and my body shaking. I get back to my compartment, and curl into a little ball.

The one I love is afraid of me. I smack my head against the wall over and over until I can no longer see straight. WHY IS MY LIFE SO SCREWED UP?

I hate this. I can't talk to her, because she'll run away. The only reason she knows I exist is because she despises me. I cross my legs and meditate for a while, trying to get my mind off her. It doesn't work.

There's a rap on my door. It's an avox, calling us off the train. We slowly file off the train, each tribute in line by district. Aria is right in front of me, and turns to talk to me. We start to talking about alliances, and I agree to the regular career alliance with her and Shimmer for now.

We are led into the huge training center and let loose. Training starts in a few days, but till they we can roam the building or meet with our stylist. What fun.

I start to go to the kitchen but stop when I hear them.

"Do you want to join our alliance?" It's the girl from earlier, Spring.

"Yeah, you should!" Arella. -_-.

"Well, you're in it?" A new voice, one I haven't heard before. The girl break into little giggles, though I don't hear Arella.

"Yep, I am, Corrie. Though I can't actually do much…" Arella again!

"Anything I can do to protect you." It's the voice of Corrie, speaking to _my _Arella! I feel anger bubbling in my mind.

"You're not afraid to be hunted by Donevin?"

"I'm not. Don't you worry about him." More girlish giggles and I am getting more and more pissed. My fists clench and unclench in anger and I slowly force my feet to walk away before I hurt something. Or someone.

It just so happens that I walk into the girls from earlier. I've found out that their names are Zoey and Xavier. In my fit of anger, I lean towards them.

"I will hunt you all down, and kill you in that arena." My eyes flash and I push through them, to my room on the second floor. I shake with rage, and take several deep breaths, leaning on the headboard, trying to calm my breathing.

My mind is reeling. So she likes Corrie. Lovely. I want to just curl up and cry for my heart, but I can't. None of them can know I love her. None of them can realize what I feel for her, or I won't be able to refrain from being with her. I put my hands through my hair and stand up, walking out of the room.

I want to try to talk to her. Maybe I can make her realize that Corrie's no good for her. Maybe I can make her realize that I'm not scary.

I push open the door slowly and walk out of the room. I walk to the kitchen to start looking for her there. I silently pray that she's alone. I won't be able to talk to her if her posse is there.

I find her there, in the kitchen with Xavier. I hear their voices as I approach.

"You so like Corrie."  
><em>Of course she likes him. Isn't it obvious?<em>

"It's stupid, isn't it?"  
><em>YES! IT IS STUPID<em>.

"No, no, it's cool. Have love when you can."  
><em>Screw you, Xavier<em>.

"I wonder if he likes me."  
><em>Who cares? <em>I _like you!_

"I'll bet he does!"  
><em>Again I say it, Xavier!<em>

Arella giggles a little. I love her giggle, it's so innocently natural. Suddenly, I hear footsteps and I dive into a closet just before Corrie walks in. Oh, fun!

I walk a little closer so I can see what they're doing, because frankly, I'm interested.

"Hi guys!"  
><em>Corrie is way too peppy.<em>

"Hey Corrie!" Xavier elbows Arella a little and she turns a deep red. That red is so beautiful, I just want to capture it in a picture.

"How are you girls?"

"I'm fine. And Arella here," she wiggles her eyebrows a little, "Is extra-fine."

"That's wonderful. What were you guys just talking about?" Arella turns even more red, and stammers something out.

"Our…abilities. Like I can climb really well."

"I can't climb for the life of me!"

"Let's see it." Xavier points to a bookshelf. "Maybe Arella could coach you."

"I'd love that!" He's too excited for my liking, and carefully climbs to the top of the shelf. He smiles down at them, and I start to get a little angry. _Back off her, Corrie._

That's when the problems start. Corrie is stuck on top of the shelf. Arella and Xavier are watching.

"I'm gonna fall!" He teeters forward, and his hands "slip" He falls on top of her, and I almost run in to rip him off her. But I don't.

They laugh and laugh, and Corrie slides off her, making sure she's alright. He gives her a hand to her feet and laughing, they walk out of the room to the dining hall. I follow them, slipping a knife into my pocket just to be safe.

They sit down and Corrie keeps her hand. My eyes stare at their hands interlocked. They get all touchy feely, holding hands, talking some more. I zone out what exactly they're saying, but they giggle and smile once in a while. They eat some cake. I never had cake back home.

Aria walks in eventually, and Corrie gives her some cake, grinning along with them. Jerk. Associating with the enemy never works well.

Xavier is the next to join in, laughing with the crowd. I decide this a perfect time to enter, so I do. I pull up a chair, ask for some cake and try to smile and act 'natural'. But my eyes and my mind keep focusing on those hands interlocked. And I can't stop myself from staring at her beautiful radiance.

I eat the cake somewhat ravenously. It's the first time I've really had something sweet since the Academy.

"Y'know, you're not all that scary." My eyes harden, even though it's the sound of bells.

"Really." I can't help the sarcastic edge in my voice.

"Eating cake like you haven't eaten in days…"

"Maybe I haven't."

Corrie scoffs at me. I want to reach over and strangle him for loving my girl. "Yeah, right. Like I'll believe that 2."

"I wouldn't be talking, district 10 trash."

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah. I called you trash." I can feel my anger heating up. My hand twitches to the knife in my pocket.

Arella steps forward, her small frame quivering, "Stop it! You're not scary!" Her beautiful voice adds to my emotions so that I can barely see. I pull the knife from my pocket and throw it, just missing her head, thank god. I step back, surprised at my own rage. I start to back away, but they don't notice. Arella barely flinches.

I cannot believe myself. Corrie does a little trick with the knife from the wall. It's really dumb and childish though, in my opinion.

I try to involve myself in other conversations so to appear unscathed. Aria and Shimmer are discussing alliances with me, but I keep glancing over at her. She looks a little queasy. I want to comfort her but I can't with that leech on her arm. They start to talk to me about divvying up our kills and that's when she starts looking really bad. Corrie finally notices and leads her away. My heart follows them.

A/N: So who do you like the best at the moment? Corrie? Or Donevin? Aria? Or Arella? Or Xavier or Zoey?

Please, please, please review! I need those reviews; they keep me writing and posting as quickly as I do!

Love,  
>MS<p> 


	6. The Problems with Comforting People

I hear sobs in the other room, and Corrie's 'comforting' voice. I lean to listen, hating to eavesdrop, but wanting to make sure she's alright.

"It's just-just that if I die, nobody's gonna miss me."

"I know, Arella. It's okay, I'm going to protect you." There's shifting noises, I assume he's hugging her. My fists clench without my consent. She keeps crying. What a moron. I could have made her stop crying already.

I peer around the corner, hidden by a plant just in time to see Corrie lean forward and kiss her. I want to run forward and strangle that boy. I can only imagine holding that thin frame in my arms. I turn away from them and walk back to my room without another word to Aria or the others. Shaking my head, I walk to my room, hating myself for not being Corrie.

I lay on the bed for a little while, never sleeping. When I get bored of that, I take a walk. It's still really early, and sitting in a window seat reading, the sun rises beside me. Just sitting there, basking in warm sunlight with a book is what I love to do. More than anything.

Hertz, one of the other tributes walks up. I give her a once over. She's not very pretty, and definitely not my type. Well, nobody's my type except _her_. She introduces herself unnecessarily, we all watched the reapings.

"Well I suppose you haunt proven to be a total retard so I suppose I might talk to you. Possibly. Would you be of any use in the arena?" Who knows? Maybe she could be. Besides, this'll tell me what her strengths are if she doesn't join us.

A stylist calls for her before she answers. "I have to get into my costume, but I suppose you could come with me... If you want." Desperate much?

"I'm flattered that you want me to see to you naked but no thanks. I just don't think of you that way. At all ever. And she isn't my stylist. I can't remember mine's name but I think it starts with a S."

"It's Sisle, dahling." A woman has walked up behind me in a flurry of pink. I spin around to see her. "And why don't you come with me?" She takes my hand in her icy one and I wave to Hertz as I go.

Sisle puts me in the most god-awful scrap of fabric possible. It's a speedo with a brick pattern on it. That's it. And it's not that I don't appreciate how lean and fit my body is, I just don't like to stand out, to flaunt myself if you will.

Abelia, as I find out her name is, returns with Hertz in a corset-and-petticoat thing. I look her over.

"Nice…underwear." I roll my eyes at Hertz, but don't reply. Shimmer walks up to us, and we continue to talk. I really want to know why he gets full clothes and I sitting here in a speedo.

Whispering, I turn to Shimmer, "Don't invite her into the alliance. She just can't comprehend our level of thinking, and besides, you already tried that sh*t with Zoey and Xavier."

"One, you're not wearing any clothes. Two, we might need her, Don."

"One, I'm sexy enough to pull it off. Two, she's just going to drag us down."

"Well, if worse comes to worst we could use her as a human shield." I nod, and we talk so she can hear.

"Oh, of course! I would love to join. I'll let you in on a little secret: Sizzle is an excellent stripper, and we're getting all of the sponsors with his televised shows. And Ayroni, my other 'ally' is actually a psychopathic killer that can turn everything into a weapon. We're going to blow up the whole arena! Won't it be great?" Her voice turns more serious, "How thick do I look? My IQ is 189. Do you think I can't pick up on an ignorant liar when I see one? And no, spending time with cretins would not insure my survival, as I would more than likely kill myself after listening to one word of your dull conversation. Nice try, but you're going to have to do better than that in the Arena." The rest is mumbles quietly, "Maybe the rest of us do have a chance! The upper districts these year don't even have two brain cells to throw at each other."

"Fine. Die then. See if I care." I turn to Shimmer again, speaking so she can hear, "I want to kill her first."

"Have fun trying." Hertz spins on her heel and walks away. Man, what a moron. 'Ohhh, my IQ is 189' Mine's 200. Big freaking deal. I wander over to Shimmer. He's talking to the district 4 kid, Kai. I catch the end of their conversation.

"…and Donevin from 1 you'll have to excuse him he's a bit of a donkey." Yeah, well, he's got a point…

"Hey, I am not!" And there's the start of more people added to our pack. We discuss what we've been training and all, and we get onto the idea of going down to the training room early. Technically, we're not allowed, but what are they going to do, shoot us?

We sneak into the center and start messing with the weapons and all. It feels so good to use a knife again, or do a little hand-to-hand. I can feel my muscles stretching back into the old routine, and I can't wait for actual training to start. Arella and Spring and Sheer watch us for a little while. None of us acknowledge them, but there's a clear boundary stopping them from coming in.

And then that over-happy, really-must-be-high escort bounds into the room and manages to tell us off with a stupid grin on her god-awful face.

I trudge out of the center, leaving the weapons calling my name. Thank god it starts tomorrow.

I bump into Eden on my way to my book. She's one of the ones in our alliance.

"How've you been doing without the training?"

"Oh, I don't train much. Just some fishing, y'know? And I can throw tridents and spears."

"As long as you've come prepared, I won't have to kill you." She glares at me. Jeez, I was just joking!

"I have people watching my back, thanks."

"Haha alright. I was joking. I don't plan on attacking any of my allies until they are no longer my allies! It was supposed to be a joke!"

"Then you have a poor sense of humor."

"Well, you can have your own opinion." I catch her mutter, 'fat lump of meat'

"I AM NOT FAT!" I gesture to my body, mostly bare, "You call this fat?"

Kai and Aria walk over and try to calm me down but it doesn't work. They keep talking about wanting to keep the alliance safe, but that's what I've been saying all along!

"I cannot believe you're wearing that, though. It's so…exposing."

"Even if I'm exposed I will still make an impression. And hey you know I didnt pick to wear this. and you wont get to pick what you wear either when your stylist shows up. Haha it might even be a rope bikini! Can we please stop fighting? We both stand a chance in these games," I mutter softly, "even if my chances are better..."

God I hate her. I shove her into the wall and she walks away, waving at Kai and glaring at me. I forget about her and we start talking strategy. Eden has me pissed off, and Kai and Aria and Shimmer are so annoying. I don't want to think about Arella right now, after her kiss with Corrie.

But luckily for me, she wanders in. I can't stop myself, "Arella!" It's quiet enough that nobody might have heard, but if they found out… I quickly cover by gently pushing her into a wall and walking away as fast as my feet can carry me. I didn't think it was possible to be more in love with that girl. But in that moment, with my hands on her little shoulders, I was. I looked into those warm brown eyes and fell in love with her all over again.

A/N: Most of this beginning part, the dialogue is Claire or MydniteShadow. But the thoughts and all is mine! ^^.

I hope you liked it!

Love ya,  
>MS<p> 


	7. The Nickname is Born

Later on, I'm walking around, bored to death. Arella and Sheer come barreling into me and Arella gets knocked into the wall. Kai, of course, assumes I pushed her and punches me.

"What did I tell you about pushing around girls?" I mentally scoff. Sexist pig.

"I thought you were with him!" She says it with such contempt it really hurts.

"I don't associate with cowardly bullies and rapists." Oh, that's it. I run at him and punch him as hard as I can. Arella gasps, adding to the emotions tumbling through my head, I'm mad at that idiot Eden, Hertz is getting on my nerves, and now two others of my alliance are against me. Aria joined the fray against me.

I can't see straight. My head is spinning and I feel sick. I turn to spit at Aria and kick Kai and then spin around and run away. Glancing over my shoulder in the haze of blur, I see Arella slumped against the wall clutching her stomach and Kai wiping spit from his eyes. Well, sh*t.

Zoey runs up to me and starts freaking out at me, but Claude drags her away. I thank the gods that he did, because I don't want to hurt her as much as I dislike her.

I run to the roof and let out a scream. It's so good to release all of that emotion and the haze slowly lifts. I start crying as I have so much lately. When the tears subside, I walk over to a wall and punch it so hard the wall cracks. I scream out in pain, and, clutching my wrist, storm down to my room and slam the door, the frame shuddering.

I sit on the bed in the darkness, not sleeping of course, just sitting and contemplating how best to kill myself. I just cannot stop hurting her. It seems like every move I make ends up with her in a doctor's office and me crying my eyes out.

After a while, there's knock on the door, and Aria walks in.

"Can we talk?"

"What do you want?"

"You hurt her pretty bad," I wince, glad for the darkness, "I'm guessing she's your kill?" I want to scream no, she's the one I'll protect but I don't, of course.

"She's anyone's kill." I swallow, "I hurt her bad, huh?" _Please say no, please say no! _

"Yup. She can't move and she's puked a couple times." Sh*t.

I try to sound sarcastic to hide the truth in my words, "I feel horrible. Tell her I said sorry."

"I have a question. So with Shimmer being kicked out of the alliance for almost raping Xavier and beating up Matt, Kai hating you, and same with Eden, where does that leave the careers? Is it just us? Or can we trust the girl from 1 even though we haven't spoken to her yet?" Hmm, I didn't know Xavier almost got raped. Sucks to be her, I suppose. They must have told me when she was in the room. 

"I don't think we need to talk to her. And screw the rest of them."

"I guess we'll just have to talk to the district 1 girl at training or at the chariots if there's time... and as for Kai, if he wants to join their side, let him... right?" I wish it were that easy for me.

"Right, well, go away now." Aria nods and leaves. I know that she's plotting against me; I can see it in her eyes. And why won't my effing mind stay on the present instead of drifting to her?

Later on, Reyana wakes us up and we're dragged down to the chariots, I in my speedo and Aria in a sheer, floor length gemstone dress. I turn and see Arella in a dress made of cow skins that is the most god-awful thing in the world. But she manages to pull it off and look sexy at the same time.

I stumble out of my chariot twenty minutes later, dazed by the blinding lights. Back to my room, back to meditating, and then in the morning, back to an irksome escort. We are finally allowed to use the training center and I immediately start, working my way around the room. Aria and I agree to separate, thank god.

I'm cutting away at a dummy when Sheer comes over, trying to look menacing. "I don't know about your district, but in the rest of Panem, we don't kick girls in the stomach. Save it for the games, punk." Trying to be patronizing and failing, I shove him to the ground, not trying to explain anymore. I'm done explaining.

"I'm not tougher than you, Donevin. Smarter. I know how to hold it in, and I know that I don't need to kick people in the stomach for them to be afraid of me. Stereotypical career, just throwing your weight around. Even your allies think you're an idiot. And it goes without saying that I do too." If only he knew. I'd love to see his face if he realized how smart I really am, or if he realized my alibi.

I start back at my swordplay but it gets old and I practice my spears. They're perfect, of course, but I start watching Arella and Sheer climbing that fake tree in the corner. My throws become more and more off, and I miss more and more shots. The trainer tries to help me, but as they talk, I watch her flying through the branches like a little fairy.

No, not a fairy, fairies are too fairy-tale. A pixie, that's it. I watch her, my eyes capturing her movements through the trees. The pixie, flitting from branch to branch. She giggles, and waves to Sheer, helping him along and playing with him. Definitely the right name for her. Spring joins in, but Arella is clearly the star of the tree, dancing through the branches.

A/N: Awwww…and the name is born! Shout outs to all the peoples who owned these characters!

Uhhh, yeah…REVIEW PLEASE! They help me so much!

Love ya,  
>MS<p> 


	8. Trees, Forcefields and Clumsiness

Each day, I continue with the weapons, not really trying because I know I can do it easily. I keep a close watch on the pixie. That's what I've begun to refer to her as in my head because it fits her so well. I decide to take my chances and go to the fish hook station. It's so easy but I try to draw a little attention to myself. Maybe Pixie'll think I'm not so bad after all. Though that's doubtful.

"Show off." Xavier, that bimbo.

"And? Your point?"

Kai looks at me and dares to speak after all the fights we've had. "Impressive." Of course.

"Thank you." My short, clipped tone matches his.

Xavier attempts to insult me and I blow past her. I'm so tired of this sh*t. I decide to avoid them for now. So much for trying to make things better.

Through the next few days, I shoot a whole lot of things, maim millions of dummies and break the wrists of trainer after trainer at hand-to-hand. It's when I'm at the archery station, failing that she finally interacts with me. By nearly shooting an arrow through my skull. It whips through the hair on my forehead and she freezes in fear. I feel for her, though, archery is not my strong suit. At all. Ever.

I ignore the arrow, and keep trying to shoot. And keep failing at it. She giggles at me, a ringing peal of bells.

"Well, you're not the only one horrible at archery." She shoots an arrow and it somehow manages to land between us.

"It's pretty hard. It's the only thing in this room I don't suck at." My face is slowly turning red, and I silently curse my cheeks for betraying me.

"W-well u-uhh u-umm I guess this is one of the many things in the room I suck at..." She shoots one and it goes fairly straight. I kind of want to explain my feelings to her, but my courage is diminished at the moment.

She helps me line up my fingers correctly, trying to hide a smile. I shoot the bow, and it goes straight. I grin at her, loving all this. The touch of her hand on mine sends electricity shooting through my spine, and I stand a little straighter.

And that's when the moment goes plummeting. Corrie walks over and wraps an arm around Pixie. I want to rip that arm out of the socket. "Hi honey, sorry I had to leave last night, how did things work out, and why are you talking to Donevin?" He nods to me with a curt, "hi".

She shoots her bow, nearly hitting Corrie, and I try very, very hard not to laugh. She apologizes and shoots one right next to the bull's eye.

I try again, and shoot one similar to hers. "Good job." Her grin falters a little, sending a pang to my heart for ever hurting her.

Corrie looks at me strangely. "So you're not gonna kick her in the stomach again?" Arella glares at him, and I wink at her appreciatively.

"You know what, I'm just going to assume you're not going to hurt her." He picks up a bow and continues looking at me like I've grown another eye.

"Donevin couldn't show you how to use that thing." She giggles at me again.

"Alright then, you show me." I slowly inch away until I can get away, glancing at the two of them every once in a while.

"You scared him away! He was being actually decent!"

I can hear them chatting about me from another station. "Yes, I scared him away with my muscular physique and violent capabilities." He grins. I want to wipe it off his face. The dummy gets a spear in the eye. "It was cake-eating Donevin, not Arella-kicking Donevin. Got it."

Corrie shoots again. "Good job!" she shrugs, glancing at me and I quickly look away. "Maybe he is bi-polar?" She leans into his face and the dummy gets several spears in the heart. "Now shoot it again." I go back to archery after a while, trying to shoot some more. And then, Corrie leans over and kisses her, and I hit a bull's eye with Corrie's name on it in my mind.

I scoff at myself, shaken by a victory. "Lucky shot." in my head I add, _if only he really had been at the end of that arrow._

"That was not a lucky shot."

"Thank you." We both speak so quietly that no one else could hear us. It's a kind of intimately private conversation.

"Are you ever going to apologize for kicking me or should I just give up hope?"

I shrug, glad at how this is going. I mean, nothing bad has happened to her…yet. "Okay. I'm officially sorry for kicking you."

She leans forward and starts to hug me, getting my hopes up, and then pulling back, blushing. D*mn it. "Um, well, thanks, I guess? Can I just ask why you did it?"

Suddenly a call comes over, forcing us to bed. I walk past Pixie curled somewhere in the training room, screaming. I am going to stop, when I see Aria. She's with Arella again. So I avoid them. I walk to my room and sit on the bed until the lights go out. Then I head into the hallway and wander for a while.

Through the darkness of the hallway, I trip over something—someone. It's her. "Hullo?"

"Oh, oh, Arella, I'm so sorry. I didn't see you!"

She doesn't answer. I guess she's still asleep. I start to walk away. The rest of the day passes very quickly, not much happens. I train a little bit, and Arella actually walks up to me.

"You tripped over me." She raises her eyebrows.

"I'm really sorry about that. I didn't see you! And then I thought you were asleep..."

"Well I _was_ sleeping until you tripped over me... " She glances up at me, "Two apologizes in two days? That is the most impressive thing you have ever done."

"Two days, technically." I grin, loving the way we can interact.

"Even more impressive than those amazing archery skills." She giggles again, making my heart pound.

"Sarcasm is not becoming, Arella." I resist the urge to call her Pixie.

"Would it annoy you if I told you that I am better at archery then you?"

"Why should that annoy me? I suck at archery."

"I know deep down inside you hate that I can do the one thing you can't."

"Because that's definitely it."

"Can you climb trees?" I swing my way up the tree in response. I am certain I look nothing like a Pixie. I flip out of it, landing on my feet next to her.

"Can you?"

"Of course."

"Let's see it." She climbs to the uppermost branch, where there's no way I could get to her without falling off branches and hurting myself.

"It's too hot up here."

"Then come down!"

"If I came down, you'd be able to reach me!"

Aria walks up, "What happened? Few days ago you two hated each other."

"She helped me with archery. How can I hate someone after that?"

Kai follows suit, but understands. Somehow he's able to realize, and knows my secret. "That's nice. No hard feelings, then?"

"Corrie gave you cake, and you still hated him." No freaking duh. "Ohh, I get it! I'm too nice for you to hate." Psh…among other things.

Aria, the ever truthful, "That makes sense. Cause you really sucked at archery."

"Hey!"

"You know it's true!" Arella finally joins us down at the base of the tree.

"You said Corrie annoys you. So I don't?"

I grin, "Only when you don't sit in the halls at 2 in the morning."

And to Aria, I walk over to the archery station and well, I fail. "Yeah, you're right."

"Told you!" I turn back to Arella.

"I was having a nightmare."

"Care to share?" She shoots a perfect bull's eye. "Nice one."

"Umm, I don't think you want to know…it was about you." Great. Made her more afraid of me.

"Ah."

"It was about you killing Corrie." Well that hurts. A lot. "But I'm not as scared of you anymore."

"I see." I don't let my emotions show.

"You're welcome. You're just…very different from my expectations."

"You too. All of you. I guess that was why I was so spiteful in the beginning."

"Soo what were your expectations for me?"

"I honestly expected all of you to be...rather simple. All the stories I'd been told at home made me think that everyone else would be stupid. I realized that I actually had some competition, and I might not really see my father again. The last thing he said to me was "win or you're not my son"."

"If he told you that... do you really want to be his son? I didn't have parents and my brother was a drunk who kicked me out, but I'm glad I lived on the streets rather than be with the likes of him. I mean parents are supposed to love unconditionally... I understand you more now. I thought you were just a career who liked to kill but... do you really _want_ to be his son?" She puts a hand on my shoulder, the electricity tingling through my system again.

"He's the only person I have left."

"He doesn't have to be." My heart races, analyzing all different ways she means that.

Does she mean like a girlfriend? Cause what about Corrie?  
>Does she mean just as a friend? Because I don't think I can deal with that.<br>WHAT DOES SHE MEAN?

"What do you mean?"

"You don't have to limit yourself to him. If you get out of this you should make some friends. He can't love you because of your success, parents should love all of you... even your mistakes. He doesn't and that isn't okay. If you want to go back to him then you be my guest but you won't be doing yourself a favor."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Didn't you have any friends?"

"No. No time for it. It was 'boot camp' 24/7"

"That is horrible. Do you want any friends?"

I shrug. "I dunno. Never missed having them." It feels good to pour my heart out to her. No one has ever known this much about me, and I'm glad that it's Pixie who does.

Aria comes back. Why did she have to come back? We had a moment going on! "Let's go up to the roof. It's fun to jump on the forcefields."

I shrug, and Pixie and me follow her.

"Have you ever _liked_ someone?"

"No." Not until now, I say in my head, but not out loud.

"Y-you never had a girlfriend before? But your eighteen... You know what, nevermind..."

I pull an apple out of my pocket and start chucking it at the forcefield, catching it when it bounces back.

"Do you always keep apples in your pocket?"

"Why? You want one?" She pulls out a slingshot and shoots a pebble at the forcefield. It hits me in the forehead. "Ow!" I throw the pebble at her, laughing.

"I can't believe you ju—" She picks up a pebble and throws it at my nose. I roll my eyes at her. Aria calls to us again.

"Come jump with me! It doesn't hurt!" We ignore her for a little while, and have a little mini pebble war of our own. She tries to push me over the edge but it doesn't work so well so she throws a pebble at my back. I throw it right back at her as she keeps trying to push me over.

"Why are you so big?"

"Why are you so small?" I pick her up easily and set her down gently as possible.

Aria calls _again._ "Guuuuys! I'm jumping off the roof, and you two are having a pebble war."

And again we ignore her. "I am not small!"

"Yes you are!"

"Am," she leans against me, trying to push me over still, "Not!" I can't help but snicker. Pixie was definitely the right name for her.

"Not working."

She mock pouts, the corners of her perfect mouth turning down, "Stop laughing, you know I am," she grunts with effort, "trying my best. You pry can't move me that easily either."

I pick her up around the waist, and dangle her over the edge. "Is that so?"

She screams and struggles and laughs all at the same time. She slaps at my arms, trying to get free. "Ready?" I ask, and jump off the roof, bouncing onto the forcefield with her held tight, landing us back on our feet.

"Y-You…nevermind." She stares at me, into my eyes.

I throw her over the roof twice, she laughs and laughs, grinning and flying through the air. I love that laugh so much it's not even funny. Yes, that was a pun.

"I-I what?" Those words are sticking in my mind.

"You um nothing... it's just there is something different..." She stares at me.

"Different how?"

"Your eyes…" She reaches out to touch my face, but stops. WHY DID SHE HAVE TO STOP?

And then Kai comes up to see me holding her over the edge. She abruptly stops laughing.

"Uum..there's a forcefield there..."

I speak sarcastically, and slowly so he can get it through his thick head, "Yeah. I know, that's the point." I set her down gently and jump off the edge. I land right next to Kai. "It's fun. Not that _you_'d like that."

Zoey and Xavier follow Kai, who says, ""Who are you, and what have you done to Donevin?"

"I was thinking the same question." Zoey is staring at me like I'm on drugs or something.

I hate her. "Frak. All of you." I turn around and start to walk away without answering their question. Arella, who was sneaking away at the time tripped over her slingshot. I find her clumsiness adorable. I push through the crowd to her, and help her up. I whisper, very aware of all the people watching. "Are you okay?" She nods and starts walking to the elevator while tripping with each step.

"Is he bipolar or somethin'?" Xavier, that fool. I flip her off and storm into the elevator with Arella. She's having issues with the button while they discuss my…change of personality. Well, love does that to you. Just cause they've never experienced it…

I press the button for her, and the doors open. "You must have magic fingers!" She gets into the elevator and I follow her, ignoring the patronizing stares. I catch her before she can fall yet again.

"Don't let them get to you."

"I-I need to get to my room to get something."

She goes to her room for a few minutes and then returns.

"Back to training?"

"Umm, sure."

She climbs the tree and sits high in the branches, while I take a much lower one. She leans her head back and hums something I don't know. I sit back and listen, loving the sound of her voice.

A/N: This is a really long chaper, I know. And it was a lot of dialogue. Yeah. I get it. Shout out to Julia (Aria) and Claire (Arella), who took up half the dialogue!

The whole way through this, I'm thinking of that scene in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer where he's all like I'm cuute! She thinks I'm cuuuute!

Lol…anyways, REVIEWS! I need them! ^^

Love ya'll,  
>MS<p> 


	9. Moments

I look up at her, a few branches above me and ask, "What about you? Your family?"

" I um... my mom and dad died in an accident and my brother he-he was a drunk and-and he b-beat me." She starts to cry and I climb one branch higher to try to comfort her. "He kicked me out when I was 11 and I've been living on the streets ever since... I don't have a family." I step up, ignoring the fact that the branches quite possibly could break under my feet and I hug her, breathing in her warm scent. She's stiff at first, but then loosens up and cries into my shoulder. I hold her tight, loving every second, every fiber of my being alive.

I hear Shimmer and Corrie in the background, but all my focus is on my Pixie. She's standing in front of my, eyes red and puffy and still stunning.

"Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Do you want me to keep being an ss?"

Corrie waves to Arella, who jumps back from me, smacking her head into a branch. She sits forward, rubbing the back of her head. I sneer at Corrie, trying to put as much loathing into my voice as possible. "Coronarcher."

Corrie turns to go, clearly upset by my being there. I slip down from the tree, at eye level with him. "Oh, don't leave on my accout, Wells." I stalk past him, calling over my shoulder to Pixie, "See ya later, 'Rella. I'll be around." And I walk out of the training room without another word. I go up to the roof, on a small overhang above the normal part, and she doesn't see me when she comes up.

She starts singing that song again, but actually singing, not humming. Her voice is like angels. Until Corrie joins in. His scratchy tone is off key and sounds godawful.

"I just, I-I want you to know that I love you, but if you don't love me that's ok, but it would obviously be better if you did love me, and Donevin scares the ** out of me, and I don't want him to hurt you, so I don't want you to hurt him, and I'm sorry for doubting you, and...yeah...did any of that make sense?"

"I can't trust Donevin enough to love him... he hurt me. Um Uh I-I love you too Corrie."

"That's the best news I've heard in a long time. You know that you're still adorable when you blush?"

"I don't think that is ever going to change... I need to go talk to someone and its not Donevin." I put my head in my hands and cry for a little while. Most people find crying to be a sign of weakness. In my opinion, crying lets loose all of your sour emotions.

After who knows how long, I get up, and go inside. It's dark, but the halls have a little bit of light. Just enough to see her sitting against a wall with a doll clutched in her hands.

"Are you sleeping?" My voice is a barely audible whisper.

"No." She stops humming.

"What were you humming? I've heard it before." And it sounded so lovely coming from her amazing throat, from those perfect lips.

"Its was a lullaby my mom used to sing to me before she... died. I had another nightmare tonight but lucky you. You weren't the one killing me." I don't know what to say to the last part. Whether to inquire further or leave it as is, I mean.

"It sounded lovely."

"Thank you." She looks around, pausing for a moment. Right now I just want to wrap her into my arms and hold her and never let her go but she continues, "C-could you stop babying me?"

I'm confused at what she means, but I agree. Anything she wants, I'll do.

She puts a hand on my shoulder, and every nerve in my body lights up. I hear my heart pounding in my chest at how close we are. "It's not that you do it just... Shimmer thinks everyone does." She narrows her eyes, "I don't like him very much." It's good to see that I'm not the only one who's started to dislike him.

"I hate him." So now there's a mutual bond between us, through our dislike of Shimmer.

"He put a target on my back too." And that completes my hate of him. He scares Pixie, he's on my bad side. "Isn't he in your alliance?"

"He's a jerk."

"I know…he called me an it." My hand clenches in anger. Under my breath I curse him,

"Assh*le." She puts a careful hand on my cheek, fingers cold but gentle. I look into her eyes, wondering what changed.

"Don't let him get to you." I mimic her hand, putting my own on her cheek as gently as I can. My palm dwarfs her tiny face.

"Don't let him get to _you._" She looks at my hand, and for I moment I am scared I startled her.

"You're right, I am small!" I pull my hand back because too much of a good thing never turns out well.

"Yes! I win!" I try to keep the tone light, joking with her. She pushes me playfully,

"Is that the only reason you put your hand there?" No. No it's not. "Maybe you're just big!"

"Maybe you're just really, really small."

"If I'm so small-" she tackles me, messing around, but my heart takes off flying. She's on top of me looking into my eyes. We stay like that for a moment, and I feel like we're the only ones in miles. Her eyes are such a soft, beautiful brown, and I-I lean forward and gently press my lips to hers. The kiss lingers for a moment, so perfect. I pull back after a minute, not really sure of what she's going to think.

She slowly slides off me without another word, and walks away to the training center. I lean against the wall, feeling like I was just hit by a bus. That moment was…indescribable.

I find a small alcove somewhere and I curl up with a book. I read for hours, because it calms me, relaxes my emotions.

After a while, I emerge from my little nook and walk to the training center, trying to catch her there. But guess who gets in the way?

"So is it true?" Aria walks up.

"I don't know what you mean."

"I heard you kissed Arella this morning."

"And?"

"Are you seriously in love with her or is it an act?"

"Why would it be an act?"

"Just wondering."

"Why do you even care?"

"I don't know... I found out about the kiss and just wanted more details about your relationship with her even though she does have a boyfriend…"

"It doesn't involve you."

"I know." She throws up just barely missing my feet. I jump backwards out of the way, my nose wrinkling in disgust.

"I'm not _that_ bad to be around."

"I know. I got electrocuted earlier so I've been puking and fainting all day..."

Kai walks up and I turn my back on him. "I see."

But he won't leave me alone, "Now see here...I just got electrocuted by a forcefield, ignored by a doctor, and nearly puked on by my closest ally. I don't need to be ignored by you on top of it all! I'm perfectly capable of throwing puke."

"Have fun with that." I try to walk away. All I wanted was to talk to her.

"We _were_ at least allies at one point. You and Arella, totally out of nowhere..."

I whip around, "There's nothing going on between me and Arella!"

I stalk away from both of them. Kai is an ass and Aria is a traitor. What a great alliance!

As I turn away, I hear Aria and Xavier talking. They know. I bite my lip and pray that they don't tell Corrie before we can.

So I head over to Arella, and walk silently up behind her.

"We need to talk."

She jumps at the sound of my voice and turns around to face me. "About what?" She clearly knows what I mean, but is trying to evade talking about it. Not happening.

"You know what." I look around at the others in the room who keep shooting us glances. "Somewhere private."

"Fine. Where to?" I take her to a roof garden that's really peaceful.

I turn to her, ridding my voice of the regret that layer it. I don't want to say this, but I know that if I don't, she'll be more hurt. And I don't want to do that to her.

"Look. About earlier. I know there's stuff with you and Coronarcher, and I don't want to screw that up for you. So, I wanted to apologize. I should not have kissed you and I'm sorry." If she's happy, then that's all that matters."

"Uh-uh why are you sorry? It was my fault too I mean need I remind you, you were the one who pulled away..."

My fingers play with a small pink flower. "But _I_ kissed _you."_

"But _I_didn't hate it."

I look up in surprise, meeting her eyes. "Y-you didn't?"

"Not-not exactly..."

"But there's Coronarcher."

"Would you please stop calling him that?"

"What would you prefer?"

"I-I don't know."

"Okay." I bite my lip." Arella, I want you to know, you are the most wonderful, kindest person I have ever met. I'm glad to have met you." I start to go. "Find me if you have and nightmares."

I walk back to my room and stay there for a while. All of a sudden, I hear hushed voices. It's Aria and Xavier. They're telling Corrie. They are so dead in the morning. I shake with rage at them.

The lights go out and I leave the room, hoping that she's outside her room so I can 'trip' over her again.

I walk past her room and hear screaming, so I start knocking on her locked door, trying to wake her up. Quinn, another tribute tries to help, but I tell her off. She doesn't walk away. What is it with people and ruining moments?

Arella wakes up and opens the door, clothes and hair in a crazed—but stunning—disarray. "I'm fine," She leaves the door open and walks back and sits on the bed. I hesitate, deciding if I should go in or not.

"No, you're not."

"Well, I had a nightmare, " she falls backwards onto the bed, "I guess I didn't need to find you."

"In my district if someone screams, we all help." It's Quinn, refusing to leave, still.

"Please just go away." I turn away from Quinn, and sit in a chair in the room. "Why don't you tell me about it."

"Telling you would just make me relive the fear. I just want to forget, feel safe for once." I hug her, glaring over her shoulder at Quinn. She starts to smile, but doesn't.

"I'm tired."

"When you have a nightmare every night, that's what happens."

"You stay up every night and aren't tired... How do you do it?" She closes her eyes on my shoulder, face peaceful.

"Years ago, I would always have nightmares, so horrendous, I can't even describe them. I tried everything but nothing worked, nothing but not sleeping. So I spent my time secretly studying instead."

"That's horrible. You-you need to sleep."

"No. I'm never gonna sleep again."

"Well do you want to tell me about them?"

"No. I-I can't."

"I understand." She slumps backwards on the bed again. My hand moves of its own accord to her long, beautiful hair, and runs through it gently.

"You're petting my hair?"

I pause, "You want me to stop?"

"No-no you're fine." She sits up, wrapping her arms around her legs, pulling them to her chest. "We should do something fun."

"Like what?" An idea hits me and I jump to my feet and run to the kitchen, I throw food into a small picnic basket and run back to her room.

"What's that for?"

"Something fun to do."

"Are we eating?"

"Only if you want to. If we go up to the roof now, we'll be able to catch the sunrise."

"Why do you make everything about me?" I take her hand and help her to her feet.

"Because I want to make you happy." Well, that sounded a lot better in my head. A lot less corny…

"Well, thank you. But you really don't have to."

"Too bad."

"I figured I wouldn't get my way with that one."

We sit, at first, until an avox pulls Arella away. I start to follow but get wordlessly yelled at. So I veer off to the training room, where I see Xavier and Aria. I storm over to them, seriously angered.

"You two!"

Aria, ever sarcastic, "Well, good morning to you too, Donevin."

"Mornin'" Xavier. I stop my nose from crinkling in disgust.

"You friggin' b*tch! You told him!"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

'You know what about! Why the [insert favorite curse word here] did you have to [insert favorite curse word here] tell him?"

"Because he deserved to know. I mean if your girlfriend kissed another guy you'd want to know, wouldn't you?"

"I didn't mean too! I was telling Xavier when Corrie asked, but then I tried to cover it up, and then I told him…"

"You could have lied! You could have done anything! We were going to tell him later, but now you've gone and hurt him and Arella!"

"Look, we're sorry, but at least now he knows!"

Arella walks up when she sees us yelling, and I can feel my whole aura relax a little with her presence.

"Stop yelling at them. It's not their fault."

I look into her eyes and I sigh. I close my eyes for a second and turn away. I start walking away from them, hearing the talk continue.

I stop once I've calmed down enough and I watch them. Arella is upset when she pushes through them and starts walking away, and I follow.

"I'm sorry about that."

"Sorry for what? Yelling like that or yelling with me next to you? Are you sorry Corrie found out? No you probably are happy. To hurt him like that aren't you? Aren't you?"

That hurts. That she'd think so little of me? "I'm sorry for letting myself get out of control. I'm sorry for yelling like that, I probably would have hit one of them if you hadn't walked up. And I'm sorry Corrie found out like that. I know how much that hurts_ you,_ and I hate that. It would have been so much better for both of you for us to have told him."

"You didn't hit them because I walked over? I don't think you're getting something... You shouldn't even have thought of hitting them. Like when you kicked me... " She walks to her room, and shuts the door in my face.

To the door, I whisper, "I didn't hit them because everything about you relaxes me. " And then, I walk to the roof and sit on the very edge, watching the sunset alone. I feel so awful for everything. I have to find a way to make it up to her.

I don't hear her walk up, I'm so lost in thought, but I jump a little when I feel her hand on my shoulder. I don't look up. I don't speak. I don't move.

She sits next to me. "I sat there for five minutes trying to find something to say to you."

"Really? Five minutes?" I mutter to myself, "And I didn't even notice."

She leans her head on my shoulder. So everything is okay after all. "I'm sorry I closed the door..."

"I understand. And I really don't want to hurt Corrie."

She rolls her eyes at me. "You hate Corrie."

"Yes. But you love him, and hurting him would hurt you. And I don't want to do that."

"Well it's not you hurting him... I'm the one who cheated and-and I am just, I feel horrible."

"We need to tell him."

"Tell-Tell him what?" My breath catches. What if she really did want to choose him? Stupid, stupid me for jumping to conclusions cause she hugged me back.

"Who are you choosing? I'm not telling you to decide now. But when you do, let me know." I get up, leaving her space to think and walk down to the training room, climbing up into the branches of the tree to just sit and think. My eyes close and I think about everything that's gone on so far.

She bounds up into the tree to a branch near mine, but I open my eyes to watch her. She curls up against the tree and starts to hum.

"The lullaby again?"

"Sorry. Sometimes I sing without realizing it. Maybe it'll get you to fall asleep." She grins and comes next to me. Though it weighs heavily on my heart, I don't inquire about her decision.

"Maybe." I drape an arm around her and lean against the trunk of the tree. Though fake, they made it seem very real.

She sings, her voice like an angel from heaven, and it slowly guides me into a soft, dreamless sleep, curled between her and the tree, her strong, earthy scent strong in my arms.

A/N So I know this was reeeeaaaally long, but what did you think? Do you feel bad for Corrie? Do you like Aria and Xavier? Were they right in telling on Arella and Donevin?


	10. Berries and French

I open my eyes groggily, blinking and disoriented. I'm in a tree, and I fell asleep, and she's in my arms.

"Wh-what?"

"How did you sleep? Any nightmares?"

"N-no, I didn't. But how?"

"I don't know. Maybe because I'm magical?" I grin, in my mind's eye, gossamer pixie wings sprout from her shoulder-blades, and she waves her fingers, making my nightmares poof.

I grin at the mental image, "Definitely."

"Well, I try. At least you got to sleep." She leans towards me, and my eyes flash to those perfect lips, so soft and pink. I lean forward a little too, waiting to see if it's going to be okay to kiss her.

"Me too." My voice is barely above a whisper. She leans forward, and our lips touch. She is so uncertain, she stops when they do. I lean into the kiss, smiling.

She pulls back just enough to speak, "I've made my decision." I smile so broadly it feels like my mouth might hop off my face.

"I love you." I bend towards her and kiss her again. She returns the kiss with a fierceness I never thought I'd see in her. I pull her closer to me, wrapping my arms around her. We kiss for what feels like ages, and when we finally break apart, we're both smiling profusely. We go our separate ways, but I can't get her out of my head, the feel of her on top of me, the touch of her lips, the way she smelled, everything.

_later_

I see her talking to Aria again, and I dash up because she looks really upset.

"What's going on?"

She pushes me out of the way, "I don't need him to defend me unlike you who is only living for Shimmer. Just face it aria you're whipped." Her voice is near a growl, and it startles me a little.

"I'm not living just for shimmer. I'm my own person too!"

"You two need to stop. There'll be time enough for fighting when the games begin!" I can't believe _I'm_ being the peacemaker.

"Really now, your own person? Look who's in denial? You didn't hate me until shimmer told you too. What afraid if you don't listen he'll leave you?"

I touch her shoulder, "Arella, please calm down. You don't need to do this. She's not worth it. " I glare at the little traitor.

She takes a deep breath, her whole form shaking with rage, and turns away. I wrap an arm around her, "Forget about her."

"Well at least I actually listen to my boyfriend instead of kissing some other guy in front of his room! And I am not in denial. I am my own person. I can handle myself... It doesn't look like shimmers with me now does it?"

Over my shoulder, I yell back at her, "Walk away, Aria, it's over."

"Well Donevin it's hard to forget about the girl who is going to be your first kill." She pushes my arm off and shoves Aria to the ground. I silently cheer for her.

"I bet you wish your perfect boyfriend was here now to help you! I bet you listen to everything he says! I bet you're afraid to go against him because he'll leave you! I bet it isn't even love!"

Realizing it's a lost cause, I step back, letting her fight it out. God, she looks sexy when she yells.

"You know what? I do listen to everything he says! And it is love because we both have mutual respect and feelings for each other! I can't go against him because I love him! And I bet that you don't even love Donevin! You're probably just using him to advance yourself in the games!"

Reyana calls over some trainers, who grab them, pulling them apart. "Girls, no fighting please!" I shudder at her high-pitched voice.

"I love him you b*tch! At least I know that for a fact he loves me back! The only reason you keep saying shimmer loves you is because you're trying to prove it to yourself!" She's fighting and kicking at that trainer.

"I proved to myself that I love him the minute I kissed him! So don't act like I'm faking it!"

"Love isn't kissing someone! Love is wanting to make that other person happy and safe! Love is when I got Donevin to sleep today for the first time in forever! Love is every night I have a nightmare and find Donevin there to help me! Love isn't just saying you love someone!" She wrenches her arms from the trainer's grasp and spits at him. "Watch your back in the arena... There might be an arrow in it." She storms out of the training room to the roof.

I'm struck by her emotion, and instead of following her, I find a little alcove somewhere and think. She really does love me. I actually manage to fall asleep in that little alcove, my dreams of Arella, instead of the other haunting this usually there.

I sleep the whole night, and when I wake up, I head to the roof to find her soaking wet.

"Why are you all wet?"

She attempts to lie, attempt being the operative word. "I spilled some water on me."

"I don't believe you. What really happened?"

"Am I really that bad of a liar?"

"Sometimes. Now, what happened that you don't want to tell me about?"

"Shimmer dumped water on my head so I threw a cup at his and he called me a b*tch..." I shake with anger and she wraps her arms around me, calming me instantly with her touch.

"He what?"

"Nothing you need to get upset about."

"I'm going to kill him."

"As long as you leave me Aria." I look at her strangely. A few days ago, she puked at the thought of killing, and now she's calmly divvying up kills. They must have really upset her.

"But I get Xavier." I lean down so our noses are touching. An eskimo kiss, that's what my mother used to call it. She quickly kisses me, grinning.

"Just make sure I'm not watching."

"Okay." Fair enough. But it's gonna be pretty hard to kill Aria while not looking. That means I'll get to help. I kiss her again, more deeply, letting the touch linger for a moment longer, not wanting it to end. But it does, and she backs up and leans against the railing.

"How do you do it? Kill and not care?"

"It's how I was brought up." I pause, considering telling her, "If I tell you something, will you promise not to think badly of me?"

"I can promise to try not to."

"I was in training to be a peacekeeper. From age 9 to 15. And from 7 to 9, and 15 to 18, I was trained vigorously by me dear old papa. If I couldn't leave him as a peacekeeper, I had to go win the games."

"It's alright, I understand."

"Good." I am so relieved. I thought she'd freak, "I know how much you all hate them."

"Since when was I like all of them?"

I pull her into my lap, because she's shivering. "Never."

"I try." She buries her head against my chest.

"I can tell." I kiss her forehead, and she tilts her head up and kisses me back on the lips. I of course kiss her back, pouring my passion into her chaste little kiss. She pushes me onto my back, and I willingly oblige. She smiles into the kiss, and I brush her cheek with my hand, loving the softness of her lips, her hands, her arms, and her cheek.

"You told me you loved me and I never got to answer... I love you too."

"I know." I grin into the kiss and she giggles, that sound so perfectly adorable. We break apart, both smiling widely.

"You make it too d*mn easy to love you." She closes her eyes and her little head falls on my chest.

"Wanna tell me why?"

"Why? Because you are the most beautiful woman in all the world. Because you are the kindest person to walk this earth. Because you are the smartest creature to have ever lived. Because you are not afraid to stand up and fight. And most of all, because you are mine."

She smiles and leans down to kiss me again, holding that moment for ages. A thought flashes to mind. My god, if Aria walks in and ruins the moment, she will not live another day. But she doesn't, and we hold each other for what feels like it will never end.

I kiss her again, and she sits on her heels, this blissful smile on her face. "We should do something…fun."

An idea comes to mind, one that's slightly evil, but totally deserved. "I've got an idea."

"What is it?" I pull her along, into my room and sit her on the bed, and rummage through my drawer to find a few handfuls.

"Somewhere...in here."

I find them and pull them out, holding some in each hand. "Okay..."

She looks at me like I'm nuts. Which may be. "Can I have a hint?"

I pull my hands out from behind my back and show her the bright berries in each hand.

"Am I gonna die if I eat the wrong ones?"

"Noo...But Xavier, Aria and Shimmer are asleep right now...And these make very fun permanent face paint."

I crush the berries as we walk out, and happen to find Aria first. We both run at her, smearing paint all over her face.

"Water dries off, paint does not!"

Aria yells after us as we tear down to Shimmer's room, smearing paint all over them without waking them up. "What was that for?"

We run back past Aria, and I answer her question. "For being a god*mn, f-ing b*tch!"

"Inappropriate language!" Arella can barely speak clearly.

I let loose a huge string of curses, flip Aria off and run to Xavier's room, covering her face in paint. Arella stays with Aria, laughing so hard it makes me laugh.

I grab her hand, pulling her away before Xavier and Shimmer wake up. "Come on, we have to go!" I grab her hand, the blue and the red on mine staining both our hands purple.

We run to my room, and she grabs my shirt and starts kissing me again, smearing paint all over both of us. We're both laughing so hard that the kisses are short as we take breaths, but neither of us seems to be able to get enough.

"Mon amour." She puts her hands on my face, getting more paint on me but I don't care.

"Oui?" I kiss her again and again, holding her closer than I should. This time, I let it linger, letting the passion grow between us as we touch.

"Je t'aime plusque la luneaimeles marées, plus queles starsaiment êtredans le ciel dela nuit,plus que le soleilaime la lumièreet la terreaimele que toute autrepersonne dans le monde entierne pourrait jamaisaimer un autre, c'est ainsi queJe t'aime,mon amour."

"Moi aussi, je t'aime." She gently pulls me to the bed, and we kiss again…

A/N: No, I am not going graphic, this is not smut. But you can pry guess what happens next.

Translation of his little speech: I love you more than the moon love the tides, more than the stars love to be in the sky at night, more than the sun loves light and the earth loves the sun. More than any one person in all the world could ever love another, that is how I love you, my love.

Yeah…

-MS


	11. The Love Square

_The next day…_

I wander the halls, blissfully soaring high above Cloud 9. Last night was so indescribably wonderful, all my fantasies came true, and then some. I head to the training hall, but stop when I see her talking to Corrie. I know I probably shouldn't, but I stop and listen to their conversation. She'll probably just tell him they're over because she loves me, and it'll be all well and good.

"I really want to kiss you right now." My mouth drops. Corrie's trying to make a move on her? Even though she chose me?

"Well, I really want to know how to answer that without hurting someone..." My eyebrows crease in annoyance. What the hell?

"That's a bit of a dilemma isn't it?" No. No it's not, because she should just walk away right now.

"I wouldn't say little. I'm not sure what happens next." My eyes close. She said she loved me. If I knew she was going to just…leave like this, I wouldn't have told her how I really felt. Now she knows my weakness.

"Well...if I kissed you, would you move away?" Please say yes, please say yes, Arella!

She pauses, thinking. She shouldn't have to think about it, the answer is obvious. "No, no I wouldn't."

!

He leans forward and gently kisses her, and SHE RETURNS THE KISS.

"I-I... we ju-just kissed."

"So we did. Thank you." My fists clench and I gasp as I feel the pain of losing her to this idiot hit me. I start to walk away, my heart burning and my mind reeling with anger. I can barely see through the blinding rage. I thought she was mine. I poured out my heart to her, and she lied.

I storm through the building until I see a young peacekeeper, with the same exact build, hair color, and eye color, everything as my Pixie. Knowing that I could never do this to someone who didn't resemble her, I shove the girl against the wall, and, screwing my eyes shut, I shove the girl against the wall and kiss her roughly.

Behind me I hear them both walk up, and Arella crumpling to the ground in tears. I close my eyes tighter, and in my head (or maybe it's out loud) I hum her lullaby. As soon as I hear her leave in tears, I break away from the girl and I start to walk away. She grabs my shoulder.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"Away from you."

"I thought we had something!"

I scoff, "Not with you."

"Ass*le." She turns and storms away, angry as anything. I shake my head and walk back to my room, where I sit on the bed with tears threatening. I hear her walk past my door, and slump to the ground, humming and crying, and then I start crying.

Slowly, I wipe my tears away. I don't know if she's still out there. Corrie knocks on my door, and I allow him to enter.

"If I come in. will you shoot me?"

"No promises."

"I'll take that as not immediately." He pushes open the door and comes inside.

"Ah...hi."

"Come to rub it in?"

"Well, no, I'd be too scared that you'd rip off my arms if I did that, so...I actually came to kinda, let you rub it in my face. I mean, she's really confused right now. I obviously didn't help, but please don't take it out on her. It's not her fault that she can't decide. And, in all fairness, you stole her in the first place, so this kind of makes us even..."

"I didn't steal her. I showed her other options and she chose me."

"So you did. So I guess that's what I just did too. Look, there's no need to get worked up about this. She chose you, fair and square. It's not my place to decide who she loves, I know that. I just don't think that you do."

"This is not helping." I walk out of the room, still pissed, right into Arella. "A-Arella."

"I don't want to talk to you."

"I'm not surprised." Corrie grabs my arm.

"Don't take it out on her. None of this was her fault." Yeah, right.

"What were you trying to do when you kissed her? Were you trying to hurt me? Did you want to hurt me? I should have listened to everyone else."

"What were_ you_ trying to do when you kissed _him_? Were _you_ trying to hurt_ me_? Did _you_ want to hurt_ me_? I should have listened to my brain, not my heart."

"You really think I was trying to hurt you when I kissed him? Do you know how bad I felt when I knew you saw? Does that sound like me at all; purposely hurting you?"

"Does that sound like me at all? Trying to hurt _you_?"

"You know after today it might sound just like you." She turns and starts to walk away, and I shout after her retreating form.

"You have no idea, do you? No clue how madly I am in love with you! Even now, after seeing you suck face with the guy you said you were over." She turns around at that, and walks towards me, eyes flashing.

"It just kills me that every time I do anything with you I am hurting Corrie. All the time I am hurting him, and I don't want to."

"If you loved him, why did you do it with me?"

"Because I love you both, and I have no idea what to do. It isn't fair to either of you always hanging on..." I glance over her shoulder and do a double take. It's Spring, that little friend of Arella's, kissing Corrie. I grab Arella's shoulders, knowing how much it would hurt her to see her best friend kissing her maybe-possibly-hopefully-ex.

"Don't turn around, Arella. I don't care how much you hate me right now, but please don't." Of course, she tries to see, but I don't let her.

"Wh-what is going on?"

"Nothing! It's fine." They turn around the corner, and I sigh in relief and let go of her. "It's nothing."

"What!" She turns around, thank god they left. But Spring comes back around the corner with him, at least they stopped kissing.

"See? Nothing."

"I-I don't believe you."

"Yeah, I know you don't."

"Well, are you gonna tell me what 'nothing' was?"

"Umm, no."

"Fine." She turns away, towards her room. "I guess we're done talking."

"I'll see you later," and I add, under my breath, "mon amour." And then Corrie runs up to us. That fool who I just risked everything for.

"Ah, hi, Arella, do you mind if I steal your boyfriend for a second?" She nods a little, and he pulls me to the side.

"Thanks for that. I know you didn't do it for me, you did it for her, but thanks anyway." He steps back, and talks to both of us.

"I'm officially backing off. I'm sorry for whatever confusion I created. Arella, you don't have to feel bad any more. I've quit the race, so to speak. I wish the two of you the best of luck and happiness. Goodbye."

Arella nods and walks away, and I meander around, until I reach the training room. I start working on archery.

"D*mn you heart for loving the one with the boyfriend."

All of a sudden, I hear a soft humming, and I look up to see her sitting in the tree. I smile, and climb to her branch. She giggles, and puts her hands on my chest.

"You're not completely forgiven yet. And you're still horrible at archery." I swing down so I'm just below her.

"Is that so? Well, , do you want to come down and help me out?"

She jumps down and shoots a perfect bull's eye.

"Okay, now help me!" She wraps her arms around me, and puts my arms in the right place.

"Who do you hate the most?" I can barely think with her scent, her touch so close to me, so my words are a little jumbled.

"Xavier. No, Kai. No, Aria. I dunno." I take a shot and it hits the bull's eye. I grin, "That was all three of them shot through the heart." She shakes her head at me, dropping her arms.

"Why not someone important? Someone who matters?"

"Like Shimmer? Or do you mean anybody? Like Astrid for example?"

"Do you _have _a mother?"

"She's dead."

"Is it alright if I ask what happened?" She wraps her arms around me again, putting her face against my chest. I swallow, and lie quickly.

"She… She was forced into being Astrid's m-mistress, and then she killed herself."

"I shouldn't have asked, I'm sorry."

"It's okay." I lean down and kiss her before she can inquire further.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes…and no. You should pry know what 'nothing' was."

"Wh-what is it?"

"Well…it's about Corrie. He and Spring…kissed." My fist clenches, and she grabs it to calm me.

"Thank you for telling me." She looks so upset…

"Forget about him! He's moved on, and you need to. Because _I _love you and _I _need you here."

"I know, I know." She looks down, eyes sad. "I just don't think I can face him right now."

"I've got some more berries we could get rid of?"

"I don't think that'll really help."

"Yeah, well." She grabs a berry and smears it all over my cheek.

"What are you doing?"

"Entertaining myself." She puts a dot on my nose. "You look so cute, no one will be afraid of you!" I lean down and kiss her to smear paint all over her face. She kisses me back, threading her painty fingers through my hair, and down around my neck.

"You look adorable." She giggles again.

"Design by Arella." And then, I see Corrie walk in and my mood plunges. I take a good look at him, and I see the blissful glow around him that only happens after a creaking. I set Arella down to yell at the bastard.

"You fricking ass*ole!"

"Yeah, I know." I walk up to him, and grab his pretty-boy collar, lifting him just a little bit off his feet.

"You frakking led her on and then go do it with some little girl who you think you love! You made her frakking cry you hurt her so badly!"

"Please calm down. " Arella, trying to relax me in this state. It doesn't work well. My fist comes back, and I love the crunch in makes in contact with his face.

"That's for everything, Wells. I hope you're happy." I smile a little when I see the purple dye mixed in with the blood on his face. Spring walks up behind him, putting her hands all over him, trying to help him.

"You just punched Corrie?" She grabs my arm, yanking me to face her.

"Yeah." I turn around, give Corrie and Spring the finger, and storm away, trying to pull Arella with me gently.

Corrie, of course, isn't finished, and yells after me, "I didn't frakking lead her on! I wouldn't do that. I only realized that I loved Spring when she kissed me. I know I hurt her-I didn't want to, I really didn't. I know how I hurt her, because this is what happened to me, remember? You two did this to me, so you have to understand what is happening here! Remember, I wasn't even remotely involved with you when I started out Spring! You two are perfect for each other. Honestly, I must be doing you both a favor by taking myself out of this twisted triangle thing we had going on." He turns to Arella, speaking much more calmly.

"I'm sorry I hurt you. You are an amazing, beautiful person, and you have someone here who can love you more than I ever would have been able to. Despite this, you can feel free to hate me."

And then Spring decides to get a backbone and join the yelling, "Don't you know? What it's like to watch people you love get hurt? I thought you did! You need to break down this stupid shell of anger and break free. Before your heart gets broken you inconsiderate b*stard."

"_My_ heart has already been broken and repaired over and over! I know what it's like to see someone hurt, I watched my mother kill herself, and I've watched that *sshole over there break Arella's heart and put her through so much sh*t it's not even funny. So get the f out of my way or I will hit you too."

Arella leaves, not looking at me or Corrie. I honestly don't care right now.

Corrie pulls Spring into a hug, continuing to yell at me. "You should be happy. You've got what you wanted. Now I know that you'll protect her. You won, Donevin. And you have paint all over you."

"Go ahead and hit me. But don't you ever forget that I'm a better person then you. And I always will be."

"B*tch." I turn and storm past Arella, hesitating, but she looks away, so I continue. I head to the hallway nearest her room, and pull out a book to read. That usually can calm me down.

A/N: I. HATE. THIS. CHAPTER. JS.

But yeah, blame Claire. And Hannah for this.

Sorry it took so long to get up, I really didn't wanna write it. Anyhoo, please review ya'll!

-MS


	12. Fighting Sucks

–"I need to talk to you about that girl you're with." I look up from my book, still annoyed, and even more so by Shimmer's presence.

"What about?" I can't help but grit my teeth, hoping he won't incite a fight.

"I know you already hate him but I saw that little piece of trash flirting with Coranarcher yesterday and I'm pretty sure they had sex." Yeah…no.

"What did you just call her?" I stand up, really ticked off. "Cause if you just called her what I think you just did, you are going to be the second person I punch today."

"You mean that ugly b*tch? I called her trash, you overbearing idiot."

"Okay." I back away like I'm gonna leave, but then run at him, punching him, and then kicking him hard right where it hurts. My foot swings back, stinging with pain. He has some sort of metal cup or whatever protecting him and god it hurts.

"You frakking b*stard! I will frakking kill you, you god*mn ass*ole!" I scream and run at him, landing punch after punch until his face is bloody and his nose is broken. I loved the sickening crack the bones of his nose made as they snapped in half. He throws me off him, trying punch me again,

"Not if I do first" Yeah, right. I flip him over, smashing into his face with fist after wonderful fist. My knuckles are bloody with the red of his face, and my mouth utters strings of curse words.

"That is the last time you come anywhere near her, you hear me?" I spit into his face, disgusted by him.

"NO!" He shoves me off him, and wraps his legs around my neck, choking me. I splutter and spit and struggle and he tightens them, cutting off more air. Suddenly, I remember a knife I stuck in my boot and I pull it out, brandishing it in his face. I wouldn't actually use it, but it should scare him away a bit.

"Get…off…me…now!"

"Whoa, man this isn't a fair fight." He slides away, and runs off, shooting glance at Spring and Arella, "I'll deal with you in the arena." He storms away and I slowly stand up, wiping blood on my pants. Arella and Spring back up, scared of me. I take the knife and drop it over the side of the roof, through the single hole in the forcefield. That moron, Hertz hears the commotion and just has to join in, stepping to me.

"Hey, you big bully, you just pulled a knife on a guy," and then she turns to face my Pixie, getting in her face in the most insulting tone possible, "How do you stay with a guy like that?"

"You took your clothes off for a guy you've never talked to before yesterday. You have no right giving me relationship advice." Wait…what?

"You cheated on that guy with this guy!"

"I suggest you don't get me angry, Sl*t."

"Wh*re."

"The blade I pulled on Shimmer was a practice knife. But the one in my other boot is not." I step forward, into Hertz's face, mad at her for upsetting Arella, who puts her hands on my chest, pushing me back.

"I don't need your help." Her voice is clear, and direct, so I take several steps back, but stand ready if it seems like she needs it. "Is wh*re really the worst you can call me?...prostitute."

I almost step forward to stop her when Hertz grabs Arella's hair, shoving her head against the railing. "What does that say b*tch?" But I don't because Spring gets there first, smashing her hand against the back of Hertz's neck.

"Didn't you know? Best friends hit harder than boyfriends." I have developed a new respect for Spring. I definitely will try to be nicer to her, if only because of this moment.

Arella stands up, unscathed, thank god. "It says you aren't very creative, sk*nk." She whips out a slingshot, and it rains glass down on Hertz's head. I can't help but chuckle a little at the sight of her shaking shards out of her ugly hair.

"Sorry to disappoint." And then she strips off her clothes, as I quickly avert my eyes, not wanting to be scarred by such a horrific sight. She runs over to me, as I stumble backwards, trying to get away from her grasp as she latches on and kisses me, her lips rough and awful smelling. I immediately throw her off me, onto the ground, slapping her hard across the face and spitting at her, before Spring smashes her head with another practice knife, knocking her unconscious.

"What a friggin' wh*re." Spring has definitely earned it.

I take Arella's hand, shuddering at the fact that I have been touched by…that. "I need to go disinfect myself, I'm covered in trash." As we go, Spring calls after us, again,

"If you want to rape someone, you might as well be good looking." Arella's hand clenches tighter around mine, and she mutters angrily under her breath.

"If that sk*nk tries to touch you again…Imma kill her."

"Tell him to come get it!" Behind us, she opens her legs, making obscene gestures to me, and I ignore her, flipping her bird as I go. Arella tries to pull out of my hand, but I don't let her. She'll regret it if she does, I know it.

"Let me go!"

"Ummm…no." I pull her into a hug, with both loving and confining intentions. She tries to pull away, her words come out in an angry growl.

"She makes me so mad!"

"Me too, but we can't touch her. And I'm tired of beating people up. Let's do something else." We've made it to the training center by now.

"I'm tired of watching you beat people up." She puts her arms around my waist, and we walk over to our tree. "Let's climb." She starts to climb, and I begin to follow, when Sheer walks up. Speaking only to her, and ignoring me, he speaks two short words.

"It's over." But they hit Arella like a bus. She runs after him as he walks away, and I follow.

"Sheer! Wait, please!" Spring sees her chasing him and follows.

"Arella! Wait, stop! REMEMBER?"

I am so confused as to what the heck is going on but I follow regardless. "What's going on?"

"You've made your choice. And I've made mine." Sheer, what an idiot. First Corrie, now this!

Arella whips around to Spring, "Just because he isn't in the alliance doesn't mean I can't have him as a friend!"

"I know, but. Ugh! Is it really best to be friends with him again? To make promises we can't fulfill? We know what we're going to do Arella… how is being friends with Sheer going to improve that. I know it isn't my life, but…"

"When I need you I'll get you. Right now... leave me alone." This time she's referring to me, making me back off for the second time today.

"Sheer!" She grabs his arm, making him turn to face her with tear-stained eyes.

"You want to be friends? Friends? And how long will that relationship last? It's obvious that you can't hold down anything permanent when you're stressed. That's why you've gone running to him. It hurts me to say this, but I can't trust you anymore. You betrayed your boyfriend, so why wouldn't you do the same to someone you've only known for a few days?" He backs away from her, "You're not safe anymore." And with that, he runs away from her.

"No more yelling from you? Wasn't that your promise?" She walks past both me and Spring, with tears in her eyes, going up to the garden, I assume. I sit on the stairs outside of the greenhouse, humming the first thing that came to mind so she knows I'm her. She stands up, cracks open the door and sits back down. I sit down in front of her, not speaking, waiting for her to be ready.

"He-he promised he wouldn't yell."

"He broke that promise."

" I don't understand...I couldn't kill anyone even if I wanted to. So why is he afraid of me? The worst I've done is love... but I can't be expected to choose who I want."

"He'll come to his senses, nobody can stay mad at you forever."

"What makes you think that? Anyone could hate me if I did something wrong enough... what if this is it?"

"Let me make you forget about him. And no, nothing could make anybody hate you, no matter how horrible"

"You can try." I lean forward and kiss her, taking her small face into my hands, reminded once again of how small she is.

"Is this how you plan to keep me entertained?" She leans forward, cutting off my answer with another kiss.

I smile, leaning into the kiss, "Yes." And then I hear the creak of the door opening, and Sheer's standing there laughing. Yes, laughing. Arella jumps to her feet,

"Go away! I don't want to speak to you! And_ I_ never promised not to yell!" She shuts the door in his face, though the glass is see-through and not at all soundproof.

"You promised a lot of things, Arella. I can't believe I actually thought you deserved Corrie. You and Donevin deserve each other. Have a wonderful life together." She throws open the door again, and storms through it. She looks ready to shove him off the roof, but thankfully doesn't.

"You don't tell me what I deserve."

"You're right, you can probably tell yourself that. You really had me fooled last night. Crying into my shoulder, making me believe that you regretted sleeping with Donevin, that you still loved Corrie. I thought you were different. But you're just like everyone else here. A deceiver. You don't deserve Corrie. Corrie doesn't deserve you. No one deserves anyone. Especially not me." He walks away, with the saddest eyes I've ever seen.

She turns away, tears in her eyes again, and runs down to the training room, locking the door behind her. I knock on it, trying to get her to open it. She does, after a bit of incessant knocking, simply unlocking it and standing there.

"I'm a deceiver."

"No you are not. He was angry and when people get angry they say things that aren't true." I slip inside, locking the door behind me.

"I pretend to be nice to everyone, but really I'm just lying... breaking you down until there is nothing left. I am a user, a liar, an actor, pretender... I guess Sheer finally saw it. Soon you will too and I will truly be alone so save yourself the trouble and just-just leave."

"You are none of those things. And even if you are, I'm not leaving. How many times do I have to tell you I love you until you realize?" I slide down against the only exist, so she can't run off again.

"I don't think I ever will, so save yourself disappointment. I've hurt enough people... all of the people I care about are gone." All the people. She doesn't care about me. That hits me hard, and it takes me a moment to respond.

"I'm not gonna leave you." Why won't she let that through? I love her!

"You think your the first person to tell me that? You think Sheer or Corrie didn't tell me that? You think my brother who beat me didn't tell me that? All those times I given pep talks to people... just bullsh*t. None of its true, because I'm a deceiver and lying is what I do."

"Well I'm not. Look me in the eye right now, straight in the eye and tell me that you hate me. Tell me you don't care. Tell me you want me to leave. Tell me you don't ever want to see my face again. And I'll go. I'll go, without a fight. But don't lie to me, please." She's hurting, I know it. That's why she's saying all this, but it still hurts me so bad. Her hand flashes to her pocket, but finds it empty, and her eyes widen. For a moment, I'm sure she's just trying to get out, but then I see her eyes, and it's clear.

"Please, you need to let me back to the roof!"

"You can't say it, can you?"

"PLEASE!"

"I'll let you out, but I'm coming." She pushes through the door, running up to the roof, past Sheer and Zoey, ignoring both of them completely. She searches everywhere, growing more frantic by the minute.

"I can't find it!" Her voice is more like a wail than just words, and she slowly walks over to Sheer, composing herself, "I know we hate each other now and you don't owe me any favors but I need to know if you saw a doll in the green house." Suddenly, I see it lying on the ground, and I pick it up, handing it to her.

"Here."

She looks away from Sheer, though still talking to him, "Nevermind." She turns and walks slowly away, ignoring all of us. I follow her, because I still want an answer.

"You can't answer me because you know it's not true."

"No Donevin, I can't answer you because I honestly don't know and don't want to talk right now. Is that alright with you? And don't worry about me right now, I'm done crying." She walks into an elevator, clutching the doll to her chest protectively.

"Okay. Call me when you're ready talk." I hate those words that come from my own mouth. I want to follow her, to wrap her into a hug and tell her it's all gonna be alright. But I don't know that, so I cannot lie. Instead, I walk to my room and sit down on the bed in the dark again.

A/N: So, what dijja think? Change your mind about dear old Hertz-y? It will get worse, don't worry! Do you like or hate Sheer atm? And Spring?

Yeah, please review! I need those to keep me writing!

Love you all,  
>MS<p> 


	13. Wagner's March

After I have sufficiently calmed myself, only a couple minutes of meditating on the bed, I get to my feet. I head towards the training center in search of Reyana. I'm hoping I'll be able to find her there, and what do you know? There's the brightly colored twit just outside the center. I slowly walk up to her, whispering in her ear,

"Reyana" She jumps at the sound of her voice and smiles wide when she sees me. You see, Reyana has a little crush on me, and however annoying it is, it _will_ work to my favor.

"Ooo, Donevin!" She spins around to face me, and I take a subtle step back, disliking how close we are.

"Can we talk?" I lean forward a little, a big smile on my face, "Somewhere private?"

She giggles, an awful sounding thing, nothing like my Pixies beautiful peal of bells. "Of course!" She takes my hand, pulling me to a small cramped closet. I force myself against the wall, as she invades my personal space a little. She's covered in different perfumes, and I swear that scent is noxious. She leans forward, lips puckered and I immediately reel back.

"That's not what I want to talk about."

"Oh." She looks down, saddened.

"Maybe in a few minutes." I swallow unnoticeably and she grins, putting her makeup covered, over-manicured hands on my chest. It's all I can do not to shove them off me.

"Alright, darling. What is it you wanted to talk about?" She's made her voice lower and slower, trying to make it sound seductive, and failing. I lean forward and whisper in her ear and she gets this creepy smile on her face.

"Isn't that moving a little quickly, dear?" Her hands slowly sink down my chest, and I repress a shudder.

"No. I mean Arella." Her hands quickly stop and drop into her lap.

"Oh. Well, why should I? What'll I get?"

"W-What do you want?" I'm a little scared to ask, this is Reyana after all.

"Kiss me like you kiss her, and I'll set it all up for you." She licks her lips like one might do when looking at food and I repress another shudder.

"Fine. Close your eyes." She does, her huge lashes sticking together a little. I grimace and lean down and kiss her very gently before leaning back. Like kissing a dead fish.

"No. Kiss me like you kiss her." Her voice is more forceful, demanding, her eyes boring into mine. "Or the deal is off." I sigh inwardly, hating myself for this, and I lean forward, and kiss her for what feels like an eternity. My mouth stays firmly shut despite her tongue's efforts otherwise, and I break it off.

"There."

"10:30." She bites her lip, positively glowing, while I'm the opposite. I'm hating myself and mentally screaming. I feel violated and unclean and just…dirty. I let her out ahead of me and walk quickly in the other direction, up to the roof, where I scream out all my hate for her. Then, I walk back to my room, and sit on the bed to wait. I know she'll come. She hates having people mad at her.

And sure enough, I'm sitting there but five minutes when there's a soft knock.

"Donevin? Can we please talk? I-I'm ready." She gently pushes the door open enough to peer in.

"Yeah." She opens the door wider and stands in front of me, hands playing with each other.

"I don't hate you. I couldn't possibly hate you. I-I am so sorry for how I have acted today and I don't expect forgiveness." She starts to leave, and for just a moment, I am stricken.

"Wait! Where are you going? I told you I'm not leaving."

"I guess after so many times that promise being broken, I don't expect it to be kept," She sits down on the bed in front of me. "How could you stay?"

"I've told you already, Arella. I love you."

"I can't imagine why, but I have no room to complain."

"I already told you why." This is perfect! I pull her into a hug, praying she can't smell that awful perfume. She hugs me back, humming passively. I am so relived she can't tell that I pull her into a passionate kiss, our lips touching, sending fire through my veins. She's so close I can feel her body pressed against mine, our arms caressing each other.

"Do you know how much I love you?"

"Enlighten me." Instead of answering her with words, I respond with a kiss, pouring everything I feel into it.

"Mon amour." She kisses me this time, pulling my face back down to hers, and we half-fall backwards onto the bed, still locked in a kiss. Her tongue protrudes through my lips, as mine does to hers, and we're both caught in the moment and filled with love.

(A/N: Give you one guess as to what happens next)

*early morning the next day*

My eyes are open, watching her sleep; she looks so calm, so peaceful. She wakes up and hums ever-so-softly so I won't wake up. My heart is pounding in my chest, but I decide to go for it.

"I have something I need to ask you, love, but I need to be sure you are listening."

"I'm always ready to listen to you." I slide off the bed, onto one knee, pulling a thin emerald ring from my pocket. It was my mother's back before she…died, and she'd have wanted me to do this.

"Arella, mon amour, you are the love of my life. I will be there for you till the end of time. Arella Bram Iona, will you marry me?"

"I-I-I don't know what to say except yes, si, oui! Yes in every language there ever was. Yes a million times over!" She jumps into my arms, and we tumble backwards, kissing. After a moment of feverish kisses, she sits back in my lap, holding out her hand expectantly. I slide the thin band onto her finger, it's a perfect fit.

Glancing at the clock, I realize that it's nearly time. "Go take a shower, I'll be waiting!" I give her a gentle push towards the bathroom, and pull on the nicest clothes I can find in the closet. I grab a pretty sun dress for my Pixie, and then I wait.

She comes out drying her hair and slowly pulls on the dress. Slowly, she puts up her hair, and turns to me, eyes and ring sparkling.

"Ready?"

"Absolutely." I take her hand, and we go down to the little chapel tucked away in an obsolete corner of the center. We get there, and Reyana is sitting there with a slightly older man. He's balding and hunched, and Reyana is staring at me, winking every now and then. I slowly walk up to the alter at the front of the church, the 'aisle' is only a few feet, but a young pianist plays Wagner's Bridal Chorus as she steps down slowly, her smile as wide as can be, matching my own.

With her hair up and in that dress, she looks so beautiful, I start to kiss her when she finally reaches me, but the old man clears his throat and begins to read unintelligibly. It's only when those lines, spoken so often do I hear him.

"Do you, Donovin Ambose take Aella Iona as you lawfully wedded wife?"

"I, Donevin Ambrose, take you Arella Bram Iona, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part." I say the lines said so many, many times and Arella copies me.

"Then you may kiss the bide." I take her face and kiss her again, and her hands wrap around me as she kisses me back. We walk slowly back to my room, and fall together onto the bed.

A/N: *wedding bells ringing* Yeah…

Please review!

Love,  
>MS<p> 


	14. Back to the Games

When I wake up the next day, she's fast asleep, eyes closed passively, and snoring just slightly. I smile and pull the covers just up to her chin and leave a short note letting her know where I've gone. I hate staying inside rooms, they're irksome and boring and I hate turning on the lights, so I avoid it as much as possible.

Today I'm sure I won't see much of Arella or anyone, what with everything we have to do. First thing in the morning, we have our little bits of time allotted for the gamemaker presentations, and then around lunchtime, we'll be shown the training scores, and this evening will be the interviews.

I'm cross because of all the pushing that's done to me, as I'm moved from place to place. If we were really allowed to see each other, I'd most likely end up fighting with someone, and I'm certain no one wants that. Although, it could be nice to vent some steam…

Before that can even start to happen, I'm grabbed by my stylist, Sisle, and my clothes are thrown on. They shove me to a line, where we are sent into the training hall one by one by district. I'm the third to go in, and I am ready. Time to show them just what we learn at the P.A.G.

I do a front flip into the room, refusing to acknowledge the judges. The aerial flip is easy, one of the first things my father taught me, but it looks cool, and could be good in the arena. I dash over to the weapons station, showing off how quickly I run from years of practice.

I grab a dummy from a small rack of loose ones and I hang it from the center of the room with a simple knot. I hop from station to station, mutilating the poor dummy with something from each, though I surreptitiously skip archery.

Three knives smash into its head, heart and throat and fake blood starts to blossom around it. There's a mace in his left arm, nearly ripping it free. The arm hangs loosely like a little kid's tooth. I throw a tomahawk into its right foot, chopping it clean off. It flies across the room, landing a few feet from the judges. I grab a blowgun and shoot it at the dummy's groin before using a whip to sever its right arm. A piece of razor-sharp slingshot ammo buries itself inside the dummy's chest and a rough-edged sword relieves him of the rest of his legs. A sharp, deadly-looking trident slices off his head

Now that that's taken care of, I ace the plants test in thirty seconds flat, and I have a fire started in fifteen. I take the fire with my bare hands, and throw it at the dummy, which lights up and burns quickly into a few charred pieces.

I make a few fishhooks from random objects and hang the bits of dummy from the ceiling so they're obvious to the judges and I climb up the wall next to them.

"That's what happens when you piss me off." And then I leap out of the room, grinning and skid to a stop outside without waiting for any dismissal. Hope that makes you proud, Dad.

The rest of the presentations will take up the time between now and the score announcement, so I probably won't be able to see my Pixie. I wander around the building, lost in thought and bored out of my mind.

I'm actually a bit happy when we're called to meet to watch the score announcements. I wink at Arella when I see her, and she grins back as we turn to watch. On the screen, each of our pictures is shown with the district number underneath. To the right of our face is a glowing number.

I get a ten, and I look at my hands in my lap. Not good enough.

Arella pulls a seven, and she's grinning when I look at her again. I smile, and she smiles back, glad at how well she did. I'm proud of her; after all, it's not easy to do well.

Suddenly, before I can go over and talk to her, I'm grabbed by Sisle, and dragged to her room to dress me for the interviews. I hate wearing suits. They remind me of my mother's funeral, the last time I really wore a suit.

I listen to some of the interviews, sneaking glances at Arella whenever I can.

Ribbon acts giggly and annoying, laughing about the time I ACCIDENTALLY kicked Arella. I don't particularly like her, but she'll probably end up dead before I can get to her.

I zone in and out during Shimmer's, I hate him so much. He says he'd love to see Arella's blood oozing out, and my fists clench. If we weren't on national television…

Aria gushes, sounding fake. She blabs about the weapons and the people and the love triangles, and it's just so annoying.

And then suddenly, I'm up. "Welcome to the Capitol, Donevin! We're very glad to have you." Chaye is so happy it's annoying.

" Is that so? You're glad to see me die, at least." Coolly angry, that's my angle.

"On the contrary, I'll let you in on a little secret There's a lot of money on you winning this. So most people would love to see you win!" Of course there is, it's me. I'm a career, trained by the capitol itself.

" Like my dad for example? He's the only reason I'm here." To get as far away from him as possible.

"Oh? So, is it for the pride and glory of being a winner, or financial reasons, if you don't mind me asking."

"That's none of your or anyone here's business." Like I'd tell him!

"So you do mind me asking. Alrighty then, how about this. How are you finding training? I believe you've been doing your own training for 12 years, so this must be a real walk in the park for you!"

"It's easy."

" You sound so confident, Donevin! Any particular plans for the Games, other than winning of course?"

" Trust no one."

"Well, what about ah, Arella?"

"Of course I'll be trusting her, she's my wife!" I thought that was rhetorical, but I suppose not.

"Oh how lovely! Another wedding!"

"To the love of my life."

" So I assume she'll be going into the arena with you?"

"Of course."

" Thank you for speaking with me, Donevin and I hope I get to speak with you again! Ladies and gentlemen: Donevin!"

I walk back to my seat and listen to the others.

Apparently Hertz and Claude had a little…fun…last night. Disgusting. Who would want to touch Hertz?

Eden's interview is so boring, I tune it out, not caring.

Kai talks about how we don't along, and points out how crappy the career pack is this year. He's right, of course. It sucks.

Ayroni is quiet, and Quinn is just wasting time with sob stories, trying to get sympathy. It's bull, in my opinion.

Zephyr acts like a freaking two year old, bouncing around in his seat.

Xavier talks on and on about stupid trees. Who really cares about trees?

Matt answers questions with one or two words only, and it goes really slowly.

Bare talks about training, and all the 'wonderful new things' he learned. Bull.

Zoey and Claude are both gushing about how in love they are and crap like that, and suddenly it's her turn.

I lean in and listen close.

She talks about me, and how she loves me, and that makes me feel good. It's always good to hear that. There's a bit about how awful her life was at home, and then the part talks about how I'm her guardian angel. Well, yeah.

Corrie and Spring both go on about each other, and our 'love square', but Spring tells Chaye about her mother's death.

Sheer talks to some girl at home named Flax through the camera.

Wendy honestly seems a bit slow to me, she ought to be fun to kill, and then Matt is just fumbling over his words.

Finally, they're done, and Arella and I walk back to her room, arm in arm and fall asleep in each other's arms, too tired after a long day.

A/N: So I know this chapter was a bit random, but I realized I hadn't included it, so…yeah.

Reviews are a wonderful thing!

Love,  
>MS<p> 


	15. The Plan

I'm wandering the halls when something runs into me out of the blue.

"Oh…uh…hi." It's Spring, I realize, and I smile a little. After the other day, I kind of like Spring. She's definitely good for Arella to be around.

"Hello, Spring."

"How have you been today, Donevin?" She seemed almost surprised by my behavior, but I don't blame her, really.

"I am just fine, you?"

"I've been fine," She stifles a yawn, "I couldn't get to sleep last night…just thinking about the Games…"

"I didn't sleep much either."

"I'm not sure any of us have…How's Arella?"

"Wonderful, and Corrie?" These formalities are getting boring…

"Corrie? He's been great…I haven't seen him sad once since we got together. It makes me happy, seeing him happy, you know?"

"Of course I know how that feels."

"Well, I'm glad everyone ended up happy in the end."

"Indeed."

"Are you taking good care of her?"

"Of course! Are you treating Corrie right?"

"Do you think I wouldn't? I mean, I love him…" Well, I love Arella, so why assume I wasn't taking good care of her?

"Course not. But who knows. Arella has changed me so much."

"I can tell that she's changed you, and I think it's a good thing, in a way."

"Better, definitely."

"It's been too peaceful the last few days, not as much drama."

"That's not a bad thing."

"Yeah…"

"Well, I should be going."

"Me too." We go our separate ways without another word. All through that conversation, it seemed like Spring wouldn't look me in the eye. Odd. When I see Zoey sitting in the dining hall, I stop, maybe she'll know what's up.

"Zoey?"

"Ummm…hi?" What is with people and 'um'?

"And how is your fiancé?" I sit down across from her at the table.

"I guess he is alright were just dealing with a lot at the moment…How are you and Arella?"

"So I heard," I say with a pointed glance at her stomach. What with Claude getting her pregnant, things must be crazy, "Arella's fine."

"Yeah well it's a bit of a setback...And that's good to hear."

"It's just…I think there's something going on with her and Spring, but I don't know what it is. They're both acting strange but I have no clue why. *looks upset* It's not like her to keep things from me."

"Maybe they are just acting strange because they are worried with the games only a few days away... But if it's bothering you maybe you should just talk to Arella about it…" She looks at the ground, quite obviously avoiding my eyes, and I know she knows.

"I tried, but she keeps changing the subject! And Spring won't tell me. I know you've spoken to her recently, please tell me what you know!" I feel ready to cry, and I'm certain my face reflects that.

She rubs her hand on the back of her neck, upset by my being upset, "I don't think I'm the right person to tell you...Besides I promised I wouldn't say anything," Her face drops, "Oh crap I did not mean to say that out loud..." There. There's my proof.

"So you do know, and there is something going! You have to tell me! I'll do anything. I'm just so worried that there's something seriously wrong."

"Nothing is seriously wrong, I can promise you that…" She trails off as though she's about to continue when Spring shows up. Great, now she won't tell me.

"What's going on here?"

"Nothing. Go away unless you plan to tell me what you and my wife are doing." Yeah, like she'd tell me.

"It's nothing were just discussing something." Zoey is agreeing with me, a little. A bit more work, and maybe she'll spill.

"We aren't doing anything…I mean…we haven't done anything yet. You don't even want to know, Donevin. It would kill you, so just…"

I decide to say what the worst thing going through my mind is, I doubt that's it…but it will surprise her a bit, "I want to know, no matter what you are planning. Spring, right now I only have one guess. I think maybe you two are-are plotting to kill me, once the games begin, and I need to know so I can kill myself first."

Zoey steps in again, "Do you really think Arella could kill you? She loves you."

"I really can't tell you. But, I can promise you that we won't kill you, Arella loves you more than anything. But, what we have to do...We aren't going to kill you Donevin. We really can't tell you. We have to s- We just have to do what we are planning…"

"I have to know, and if you two can't or won't help me I _will _find out. If you won't tell me yourself, Spring, I'll find someone who will. And Zoey, will that person be you or do I have to keep searching?"

"You can't know…Donevin you don't want to know…and we can't let you know."

I turn to Zoey, and say one word, "Please," and to Spring, "I've thought the worst but nothing you say will make me think any less of either of you. But I must know so I know how best to protect her."

"What Arella and I are planning, Donevin, is for protection for the people we love." Spring turns and walks away, most likely because she doesn't want to spill. I turn to Zoey, my only option left.

"I am begging you, Zoey. You know what it's like to be losing someone you love."

"Yes I know what it's like and in a few days I'm going to experience that pain again," She sighs, "If I tell you, you have to promise me that at the bloodbath you will not kill me, Claude, Kai, Zeph, or Bare okay?"

"Unless I am attacked by one of them first, they will be safe." If I am attacked first, I cannot promise anything…

"Then I will make sure I tell my alliance to leave you be...Look so first I just want to say Arella is just trying to protect you and her plans intent is to keep you safe and not to hurt you."

"And?"

"Arella and Spring plan to run just the two of them away from everyone else at the cornucopia..."

"Wait…what?"

"They plan on running. Arella doesn't want you to die for her in the bloodbath you have to understand where she's coming from...She wouldn't be able to live with the fact that you died for her."

"But that's it? She's not gonna try to die for me?"

"No."

I hug her suddenly, "Thank you, Zoey. I am forever in your debt." I walk away to find a way to still protect Arella.

I obviously can't let her know I'm following her, but that's what I'll do. Follow Spring and Arella all through the arena, and protect them from harm.

A/N: Yeah, anybody else pissed at Arella and Spring right now?

REVIEW PLEASE! *gets on knees and begs* I need them!

Love,  
>MS<p> 


	16. Prettier than Hertz

It hurts a little bit to know that she doesn't want me with her, protecting her in the arena, but I have to believe that it's for the best. She may not know that I'm there, but I will be, her very own Guardian Angel. I know there's nothing I can do to change her mind, it's been made up. Before my mom died, she always used to say that the things you hate the most are the things you also love the most. Like for me, I love how strong and powerful she is when it comes to facing down Shimmer or Aria, but when she's stubborn against me, I hate it.

I guess that's life. No matter how much I love her, there's nothing I can really do. So the plan formulating in my mind to trail them and protect her is a good one. I know I can't avoid her much; it kills me when I'm not with her. She won't know I'm there, but they'll not face anything while I'm alive. My Pixie and I, we're not exactly the most loved couple, but I can be sure that she _will_ make it out of this arena, one way or another.

I plan not to tell her what I know. Zoey'll no doubt tell her I've heard, but maybe she ought to feel what it's like to have something hidden from you. When I realized that she had plans that I wasn't aware of…it was pretty sh*tty. But I've got to push that to the back of my mind while I'm with her, or I might accidentally tell her.

I get to her room up on floor 10, and I peek in the door. She's not there. I sigh and turn around, grabbing some clothes for her for the morning. I'm not sure if she has anything clean in the drawer in my room. You see, we've been sleeping in either room, usually whichever is closer, so I stuck some of her clothes in my dresser, and some of mine into hers so we can get dressed with no worries. Although…I bet she'd look so cute in one of my shirts…Maybe I can get her to wear one.

The elevator takes what feels like ages—but probably was only a few minutes—to get to the second floor, and I get off and head to my room. That irksome elevator music always gets on my nerves, too happy and peppy for the building of doom. That's what I refer to this place as because it's the last place we'll see before the arena, and for everyone but my Pixie, it's the last thing they'll see before their deathbed.

I'm going to try to get us to the top two, and then kill myself. The longer I can protect her, the better. I'll try to get away from her long enough to, because I know that will upset her so much. When it gets down to the last few, it's all I can hope that Spring or Sheer won't be up there, because it would upset her so much. The easier it is for her, the better, I just pray that at the victory tour, my dad won't bother her. After all, Arella and my relationship isn't exactly a secret.

As I get out the thin key, I can't help but be glad I met her. Though we have such little time together, she's done so much for me. I mean, I was so spiteful in the beginning, but just being with her made me a better person. I push the door open gently, and I see her sprawled spread-eagle on my bed, limbs covering every inch of it, as she sleeps deeply. I set the clothes down next to a small pile of mine, and curl up on a small patch, watching her facial expressions as she dreams away. I don't sleep, the nightmares are back and worse than ever as I realize how little time I have left with her.

The next morning, I open my eyes with the love of my life clutched in my arms, and I start to hum her song under my breath. She smells so good, and her soft hair brushes my face like a caress. She's so tiny and warm in my arms, and yet it's such a perfect fit, her and I. When her eyes open, I whisper in her ear, "You are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen." And she really is. Before her, I hadn't the time to look, and after I saw her, I didn't care to look.

Her adorable face turns that red color I love at my words, brightening and coloring. I know she loves to be complimented, though she always refuses to accept them no matter how hard I try, "Beautiful woman I think not."

"You don't see yourself well enough. In my eyes you are the most beautiful woman in all the world." I wish I could make her see through my own eyes. Then she'd see what it's like for me, every time I see her.

She rolls off the bed, dragging the comforter over her head in the process. She has a real problem with staying on the bed, she's always so restless. I'm not sure why, though. "Ouch. Am not."

I get an idea, out of the blue. I'll pick the most horrid, most vile, disgusting creature on the face of the earth, just to make her jealous. "Alright, fine, you're not as pretty as Hertz. She's _way_ prettier than you."

And it works. She uncovers her head to glare at me playfully, knowing that I'm joking, but playing along a bit. "Well if you think Hertz is so pretty I'm sure she would love to get in your pants. Already tried once remember?" I shudder at the very thought of her attacking me like that. I felt so violated afterwards, and I can only imagine how very disgusting anything more with that slut would be.

Careful to keep the tone light, joking, "Clearly I'm good at it, you keep coming back for more. So I bet she would love it." I'm trying to sound as arrogant as possible, and I think I'm succeeding.

She groans against the pillow, and I stifle a laugh at her reaction. She's so tired she seems to almost think I'm serious. "You know what I'm going to go get her for you and I hope you get and STD in the process." Well, maybe I'd be worried if her face wasn't surrounded by a fluffy down comforter, but her in her silky nightgown just isn't very threatening.

But I want to make sure she doesn't keep that idea in her head, so I end our little game, "Oh, god, don't make me puke! I wouldn't touch that skank for money. She's the foulest creature I could think of. I know you are more beautiful than her and every other person in the world." Of course I think that. It's completely true!

She tries to throw a pillow at me, yawning and it sails past me. She's so sleepy, she can't see straight, and it's so adorable! "Well, Ms. Sleepy, they're serving breakfast if you want something to eat."

"But-but I don't wanna move. I'm hungry though... humph." It's funny to watch her debating, her sleep-stricken mind moving slowly as she chooses between getting up to eat or starving and not moving. I lean over and tickle her sides to make her laugh again, because it's so amazingly cute.

"C'mon love, time to get up and get dressed." I reach my arms around her, helping her to her feet, and she's like a loose noodle in my arms. I lean her against my dresser and grab the first shirt I can find and hand it to her. She rubs her eyes, trying to get the sleep out of them.

It doesn't work very well, and her words come out like she's a little high, "Hey, I don't think this is mine... it's too big. Or maybe I'm too small?" The shirt is big on her, but she still manages to look sexy in it. How that's possible, I don't know, but I kiss her before picking her up and whisking her off to the elevator. She sighs and leans her head on my chest, keeping me nice and warm.

"Y'know…you're really big." Well, yeah. I've been training all my life, so I'm muscular, on top of my genetics making me tall…

"So what?" I think bigger is better. I mean, for hand to hand combat, for any kind of strength training, it's definitely better. And I get to pick her up easily like this cause she's so tiny and pixie-ish.

"So you should get smaller." She scrunches her nose as though imagining me smaller, and decides against it. "Nah, I should get bigger." In my opinion, not that it really matters, she's perfect, just the way she is. But of course she wouldn't listen to that.

"Naw, you don't need to change at all." I grin down at her in my arms, having a seriously hard time imagining her any bigger. All the pictures in my head are strange proportions and odd shapes and look nothing like my girl.

"Does that mean you have to get smaller? I don't see how that would work..." I chuckle a little at her silliness, quite clearly induced by tiredness. I'll have to keep her groggy more often, this is really funny.

"How 'bout you stop complaining about being an adorable pixie." Sh*t. Did I just say that out loud? Ahh! She's gonna be pissed at me for calling her that, I'm sure! I mean, I say it lovingly, but I doubt she'll take it as a compliment…

If she weren't so tired, I would be so screwed, but thankfully, my comment sails over her head, and she falls asleep in my arms as we get on the elevator. With her warmth in my arms, and her earthy scent overpowering, I fall asleep in the corner of the elevator.

And then, I'm in the middle of a nightmare. She's being attacked by the president, his dark face bearing over hers, long talon-like fingers reaching for her neck, to tear it away. I'm tied to something, a pale-faced woman has my hair and my body held back against a wall of some sort, and no matter what I try to do, she won't free me. Begging, crying, seducing, kicking, nothing works. I watch the president-creature tear out her throat.

"No! Nonononononono!" I scream as I try to reach her bleeding body. The woman holding me grabs my shoulder to pull me back and I shove it off. I scream out, once, long and loud when her hand falls still, and her eyes gloss over. My shoulder is shaken again, and I hear Arella's voice, urgent and scared.

"Donevin? Donevin wake up! Please wake up, please!" My eyes open, and I freeze, locking onto hers. But that's not possible. She can't be alive, that couldn't be, I just watched her die! This thing has to be some kind of mutt of the capitol, not my Pixie. It tries to hug me, tries to make me feel better, and I hear the Arella in her voice.

"Wh-what happened?" There's no way the capitol could have re-created the compassion layered in her voice. No way could they have re-made that beauty. I must have been dreaming.

"I-I-ah…" As the relief washes over me, I pull her to me and crush her lips with my own. My Pixie is alive, here with me, not taken, tortured by the capitol. And for a moment, she kisses me back, surprised and worried, but then she pulls back from me, leaving me wanting her even more.

"What was it about? I-I mean how could this happen? Why? Wh- Just, could you tell me what happened?" That compassion is there, in her eyes, her voice, even the way she is holding her body next to mine.

"I-I-you-" I'm tongue tied, I can't find a way to say something to her, I don't know what I should say. I know now why that nightmare happened, because I feel like I'm losing her the closer we get to the day she's going to run from me. "I had a nightmare. You were being chased, hurt, and I was tied up. I couldn't help you."

"I-I promise you that won't happen. Just why so suddenly would you have a nightmare like that?" Her voice is cloudy with worry, fear for me. I know exactly why, but I also know that telling her probably won't help much. Just make her feel guiltier when she does run.

"I don't want to tell you." I pray that she drops it, though I'm quite certain she won't. It goes back to her stubbornness.

"Y-you don't want to tell me? But I thought..." What did she think? That I'd have given her everything, when I had to find out through _Zoey_? That I'd have told her everything, when she hid this from me?

"What did you think? That we told each other everything? Cause until now, I have." It just irks me so much that she'd just assume that she could hide it, and me not find out until she ran. And then assume I'd tell her everything. I mean, come on. How is _that_ fair?

She seems to realize then, at that point that I know about the plan, and she starts to almost explain it, "I-I have to... I mean... Your right, me too." Though by the end, she tries to fix that, and continue with what I said. But honestly, I'm not mad at her for running, I'm mad cause Zoey had to be the one to tell me.

"I know what's going through your mind right now, and I'm not mad at you." I lean back against the elevator wall, waiting for her confusion. Of course she'd assume I'd be mad, but I can see where she's coming from, a little. We talk a little, and I assure her that it's true, I'm not mad. I've decided I like Spring, and Zoey of course. They're good for her, and they will protect her when I'm not there.

The elevator dings to a sudden stop on a random floor and we get off into a big, warm pool room. We walk, hand in hand over to a chair, and I pull her into my lap.

"I love you." She leans forward and kisses me, her touch overpowering my willpower. "Je t'aime. I need you to believe me when I tell you, you mean everything to me and nothing could change that. I need you to know how sorry I am for not telling you sooner about me and Spring's plan. I need you to help me show you how much I love you, please."

"I love you, mon amour." I kiss her again, more passionately than her little pecks and she grins into the kiss. She's like a drug, warming me up, calming me and making me high all at the same time. She pulls back, asking to swim, so I strip naked and dive in. It's not like she's never seen me naked before… And the water feels so good.

She laughs at me, the sound ringing off the walls, and I reach over and pull her in, soaking my shirt. She stays still, a dead weight, and I swim her over to the shallow part, though her kisses are quite distracting. When we finally get to where she can stand, I give into her kisses and we fall onto the stairs, intertwined.

A/N: That poor pool….that's all I can say. Yeah, so…thank you all my reviewers, especially thanks Claire for the constructive criticism, did I do any better? ^^..

Love,  
>MS<p> 


	17. More Than Just a Dessert

I watch her sleeping again. It's become a favorite pastime of mine, she just looks so serene. I love it! And when she murmurs in her sleep, sometimes my name, my heart soars above the clouds. It's so quiet in here. The pool is still, water glassy. I glance at my reflection, and I barely notice the passive face regarding me carefully. It's still me, still my green eyes, my dark hair, thin face, all of it. But the expression is one of calmness. It's one I haven't seen present on me in thirteen years. I look away from the pool to my love's face again, and I lean on my hands looking at her.

After a few minutes, she opens her own eyes, looking straight at me with those huge brown beauties, and I quite literally melt. She grins at me, and hugs me tight. I breathe in, closing my eyes at her touch. Eventually, we break apart, and slowly stand up. She pulls on my shirt again, and I grin. So adorable in that shirt…

*later*

I'm wandering about when I see my Pixie and Zoey talking. With my newfound respect for Zoey, and the smile I get when I see her still in my shirt, I'm in a particularly good mood. I hug Arella, whispering in her ear, "Grown attached to my shirt, love?" She grins at me, and I nod hello to Zoey.

"You might not get it back." She turns to Zoey, and I notice her face is that rosy pink that lingers after a blush. It makes me wonder, but I don't question it. "Here he is." Oho, maybe that's what the blush was about. But that wouldn't be it, that's just my ego talking.

"Hey." Zoey looks at me, and I wonder what she wants. Not many people around her search me out in particular.

"What's up?" I glance at her, waiting for her answer. She's pretty, I suppose, but girls in general look pale and shabby next to my Pixie.

"Oh, we were just talking 'bout you is all." Arella's voice is light, joking, and I can see it in her eyes, she's got something hidden. I'm sure I'll find out what it is eventually, so I keep the tone light, joking around with them.

"What about? My stunning looks? My impeccable manners? My excellent people skills, that must be it!" Yeah, cause my people skills are so amazing, everyone here loves me. Oh, wait…

Arella giggles, her face lighting up bright, and her laugh filling the air. "Yeah, your people skills, that's got to be it!" Her face goes a little pinker and my mind goes a little blanker, "Though you're not half bad on the eyes." Zoey smiles at us, clearly amused. I don't really blame her.

My Pixie turns to her and whispers loudly, "Don't tell him about the blushing thing, okay?" I'm guessing it's no big deal…but I'm curious.

"What blushing thing?" This in turn makes her turn even redder at being found out, and she seems to silently curse herself for even saying anything.

"Nothing, nothing." She stands on her tiptoes to kiss me, trying to distract me. How coy. She really is hiding something.

"Arella there's nothing wrong about blushing every time you think of him." Zoey clamps her hands over her mouth, eyes huge, "Sorry I didn't mean to say that out loud…" Her voice is muffled behind the hand, and I look into Arella's eyes again. My love has such captivating eyes.

Her face is now a bright cherry red, and boy does that boost my ego. I put my hand under her chin, tilting her face to mine. "Yup, you're thinking about me now." I grin at her and she looks away to glare at Zoey. She mouths, "I hate you," to her. I chuckle at her and kiss her ever so gently before releasing her chin.

"Hey don't be mean, baby. Zoey just has a problem with spurting things out that she doesn't want to say. It's not her fault."

"Yeah…I do have a problem with that." My Pixie crosses her arms, and starts walking away. I follow her, her touch like a drug to me, always leaving me wanting more and more, but rarely getting any. She goes into the training center, me and Zoey just behind her.

Knowing what she'll want, I jump up and crawl into the tree, grabbing a branch and lifting myself up onto it. I swing from branch to branch, getting as high as I safely can. "Betcha can't beat me now!"

She jumps past me, never able to resist a challenge and jumps into the tree far above me. I pout because I can't reach her high up in that tree. I reach up to tickle her foot, grinning.

"You're blushing again!" I grin at her, and she smiles at me, turning redder. It feels so great to be in love.

"Hey, guys, you want to go grab some ice cream? I'm starving!" Zoey walks under the tree, smirking at us. I glance at Arella, and she nods agreement, so we jump down out of the tree to join Zoey.

We walk quickly the kitchen, and I try to keep my eyes off Arella, because who knows what will happen if I'm looking at her, especially when we're standing this close.

"I like vanilla," Zoey says as she turns to us.

"Me too!" Arella nods, and my mind immediately slips into the gutter. Vanilla, the creamiest, smoothest, whitest possible choice, and they pick it.

This is going to be a long snack.

"I like mint chocolate chip." Honestly, I like vanilla too, but if I can convince them not to eat vanilla, I'd really appreciate it. I do not want a magic wand in front of Zoey, no matter what, because I'll never live it down.

Zoey walks over and pulls out the ice cream, only bringing the vanilla. My pixie grabs the bowls, and I walk over to get the spoons, handing one to each of the girls and sliding into the seat next to Arella.

Zoey digs into the bowl of ice cream immediately, while Arella gets this strange look on her face.

I glance at her, confused, before she takes a bite, licking the ice cream off the spoon seductively. I shiver and look away, eating my ice cream normally and avoiding looking at her.

Zoey says something, and I look at her, but Arella's in my peripheral vision, and I can feel the evidence of my lust for her slowly rising. I bite my lip, looking away, finding it suddenly very hard to focus on anything but Arella. I try to focus on my ice cream, but I can't.

I look at her and shiver because the sight of her tongue curling around the spoon, licking the ice cream off the thin, long metal is just so arousing.

In retaliation, I slip my hand over to her thigh, tracing circles, trying to get her back for my…stiffy.

She slaps my hand.

"Arella, would you stop trying to turn your boyfriend on in front of me?" It's Zoey, my savior!

"I don't know what you're talking about." And there's Arella, forever in denial.

"You're licking that spoon like-"

"Hey, Zoey, darling!" Claude walks in to join the party and I sigh, knowing now it will be even longer until I can get rid of my little problem. "I want to show you something, will you come with me?"

Zoey nods and I cannot believe my luck as she waves goodbye to Arella and skips out the door on Claude's arm.

And then we're all alone.

A/N: Finally an update!

Sorry, juggling an addiction…to rp-ing!

But I've finally updated it, and I'd love me some reviews!

Pwetty, pwetty pwease?


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